One Word: REVENGE!
by AeonXBorealis
Summary: Al wants revenge against Heather and the mysterious cyborg Doc Renard is supposedly in on it, too, if he helps him get vengeance on Chris. While Al finds himself caught up in typical TD drama, Renard seeks aid from vampires and other supernatural beings.
1. 1: Ratings and the Inside Man

1: Ratings and the Inside Man

Moonlight slanted in through the window, igniting the room in a bright, almost ghastly glow.

It had been at least a year or so since Alejandro had cast his lot in the Total Drama reality show and since then, he'd been greatly incapacitated. As he lay there in bed, he could feel the numbness in his legs, knew that it was going to be a long time, maybe even never, before he could move them again; his hair was short, stopping just above his chin. And he was having trouble moving his arms. But at least he didn't need to facilitate that robotic suit anymore.

The doctors had told him that he was lucky that Dr. Renard had showed up. Dr. Renard was a "miracle worker", giving Alejandro the chance to completely rehabilitate, where in the alternative situation he'd have been paralyzed and stuck within a robotic shell forever. Of course, Alejandro was thankful, but he was also impatient. He didn't want to wait for the rest of his life, trapped within the confines of his home with his mother, taking online classes. Jose would never let him live it down.

Dr. Renard said that it would take at least two more months before he'd even be able to walk, let alone any intense exercising. Sighing, he tried to close his eyes and get at least some sleep.

Sleep seemed to be an impossible feat for him anymore. Throughout the day, Jose made constant gibes about the rings or bags surrounding his eyes, but Alejandro couldn't really help it. His mind was either overflowing with thought anymore or he was having nightmare after nightmare. Tonight, he was going to control those nightmares and get one of those rare full nights of sleep...

Slowing his breathing, Alejandro could hear his heart beating, using its casual rhythm to fall asleep. An hour passed and unconsciously, he ticked off the phases of REM as they took place, waiting patiently for that delicious fourth stage of REM, the coveted dreaming state.

Suddenly, his efforts came to total fruition: Alejandro was dreaming and he was fully aware of it. After so many hardships, he was truly relishing in the experience of lucid dreaming, where he was in control of _everything _within the dream world.

Alejandro loved that in the dream he was in the perfect physical state he'd been in before the incident involving the lava. He was in the middle of a moonlit forest with bare, skeleton-like trees standing everywhere. The stars winked faintly, the sky was dark, and the ground was bathed completely in shadow, wrapped in a thick blanket of white mist. Quietly, he crossed over the land, smiling as he scanned everything in search of something, actually _someone_, in specific.

He spent several minutes looking and that's when he saw a dark silhouette, clearly outlined by the big and full moon in the sky, snake by. The figure slithered behind the thick shape of a tree trunk. Alejandro walked deliberately in the direction of the tree, smirking a little. The closer he got, the louder the prey's breathing was. Things seemed to be way too easy as he circled the tree and found the brown haired shrimp cowering up against it, his pupils the size of bowling balls.

"Did you really believe that you could escape me?" Alejandro asked ominously, leaning down to his level. "I have come to claim my revenge...pathetic little one."

Smiling and showing rows of sharp canines, Alejandro easily picked up the little weakling and tugged mercilessly on the back of his shirt. His prey gagged a few times, pulling at the shirt collar and Alejandro laughed, loud and strangely melodious. Then he took his prey and hung him up like a pinata from the tree branch.

Whimpering, Cody swung back and forth in the light breeze.

"Leave my Cody alone!" another voice clamored.

Feeling superior, Alejandro turned and easily captured the newest arrival to the scene; she shrieked like a banshee, balling her fists and kicking at him, all of her blows working to no true avail. She ended up in the tree branch next to the one she was trying to rescue: on the most precarious part of the tree branch and dangling, about to fall at any moment.

Two opponents down. Both were extremely fragile and weak, so of course they'd been no real or considerable challenge to Alejandro. Chuckling, his eyes flashed yellow and he turned into a full-on werewolf, gnashing his fangs, sprouting a tail and growing fur from head to foot. He was hungry and felt fierce, strong, indomitable.

Turning around, he faced his prey and licked his lips, watching with delight as their pupils shrunk and they both tried to suppress screams. All he had to do was raise his giant paws, shoot out his foot long claws and they squirmed and flinched in utter terror. With each step he took, Alejandro could feel their fear growing. Sierra even tried to collect Cody into one of her bear hugs, falling from the branch in the process.

"Cody..." she mumbled as she hit the ground.

Alejandro pounced, about to slash at Sierra with his claws. The moment before his strike could connect, a long metal staff came in-between his claws and the victim. The owner of the staff came into view, sticking her face right in front of his. Her teeth were bared and his utter ferocity was mirrored in her coal black eyes.

"Back off," she growled, applying more pressure on the staff.

In reply, Alejandro pushed back harder, watching as she stumbled and fell on her rear. Behind her, Cody and Sierra fled towards the forest of dead trees, leaving her to fend for herself. That was just fine; this was the true prey that Alejandro had been after in the first place.

With a huge leap, Alejandro launched himself into the air and easily pinned his new prey to the ground, knocking the metal staff out of her grasp.

"Long time, no see, Heather," he growled, moving so that his face was only millimeters away from hers.

"Yeah, you're the last thing I want to see," Heather snarled, her own eyes flashing yellow. "Bastard."

She quickly transformed into a werewolf and then threw Alejandro off. He slid, but regained his bearings and went down on all-fours. Baring his teeth, he looked at Heather, watching as she eyed him, raising her own clawed hands. Without warning, she leaped through the air, claws glinting in the light of the full moon and scratched him, right across the chest.

Surprised, huge spikes of pain began to radiate throughout Alejandro as she slashed at him, over and over with her claws. Crimson ribbons of blood flew through the air. All Alejandro could see now were her vicious golden eyes, the flash of her teeth, his blood flying everywhere. He knew he was being sliced to tiny little bits, yet every time he tried to fight back, Heather just became that much more relentless and powerful.

When she finally stopped, Heather looked down at him with narrowed eyes. "We were never meant to be. I was _never _in love with you. I only wanted the money..."

Alejandro's eyelids flew open and he could feel and hear his heart pounding. He was covered from head to foot in sweat, terrified as the images from his subconscious brain seemed to burn into his retinas and flash before his eyes like a horror movie.

It felt like a huge anvil had been placed on his chest; he couldn't breathe.

The warm, liquid sunlight that filled his room and the birds singing outside his window seemed extremely inappropriate right now. That's when Alejandro's mother entered the bedroom with a wheel chair, smiling like an angel as her soft brown eyes lit up upon seeing her "baby boy". She walked over to the side of the bed and before he could protest helped him sit up.

"_Eres blanco," _she whispered, stroking his hair. "_Como una fantasma._"

"_Estoy bien, Mama_," he said, trying to reassure her.

Much to his embarrassment, she enveloped him in a hug and kissed his forehead. Then she carefully helped him into his wheel chair and pushed it out of his bedroom, down the hall and into the kitchen. The house was as quiet as a graveyard, serene and tranquil. Everything was truly out of place.

Alejandro sat still and quiet, retreating into his thoughts as his mother hovered around like a hummingbird in the kitchen. Even though he'd been having a lucid dream, as soon as Heather had been introduced to the dream, it'd spiraled out of control and turned into a gory nightmare. He raised his hands and balled them into fists as her image entered his mind.

_Heather_. Wherever she was, he swore that he was going to get revenge on her as soon as he could. He'd been waiting an entire year now. He could wait a little bit longer. Forever if necessary.

She'd taken his heart and smashed it to bits like glass. It'd been so stupid on his part to let his heart run away like he had. That girl was so much like him, he should have known that she'd do what she did. It wasn't the lava that had truly destroyed him. It was _her_. And she was going to pay.

"Did you have another nightmare, _hijo_?" his mother asked, appearing out of nowhere. "It's that girl again, isn't it?"

His mother had watched all of Total Drama World Tour, every little detail. She knew him better than he knew himself, so of course she knew exactly what was on his mind.

"I swear I'm getting revenge," Alejandro whispered.

"I know," she said, frowning. "I know that you will. Now, it's time for you to eat breakfast."

Dr. Renard smiled, his arms folded behind his back.

Alejandro could successfully move his arms and legs now. He flexed his fingers, his arms, his toes. Right now, he could only walk stiffly, like a robot, but that was certainly better than nothing. Smiling for the first time in months, Alejandro turned towards Dr. Renard and folded his arms across his chest.

"No thank yous necessary," Dr. Renard said, a sly look on his face. "You do owe me a favor, though. A huge one."

Alejandro's eyebrow shot up and he frowned. He didn't like the tone of the doctor's voice, or the way he was smirking. As his brain worked, Alejandro fixed Dr. Renard with a steely look and watched as the doctor removed his lab coat, carefully and tediously unbuttoning each button. When he was done, Alejandro's jaw dropped.

The doctor was part cyborg, the left side of his chest full of rotating gears and other metallic parts and his entire left arm, up to the wrist was robotic. He was dressed in a dark jumpsuit that went up to his neck and clung tightly to his skin. Dr. Renard pulled his lab coat entirely off and draped it over the back of a nearby chair, then leaned against a counter top, smirking at Alejandro's reaction.

"As you can see, I'm a cyborg," he said, stating the obvious. "I used to be a co-worker of Chris' in the Total Drama franchise, the person who confirmed how ethical the challenges Chris wanted to do were. But I ended up getting pushed into a pit of hungry bears along with the interns on _accident_. Unlike the intern, I just barely came out alive, with no chest and a missing arm."

Dr. Renard folded his hands, sighing. "I was able to repair myself and a year later I decided to quit the show biz career and become a doctor. When I heard about your case with the lava and Chris' imbecilic response to it, I simply _had _to step in and do something. You're lucky that I've been able to develop enough high end technology to restore you to the point you are at right now. The alternative would've been being a bucket of bolts. Like me."

Chuckling grimly and unfolding his hands, Dr. Renard walked over to stand next to Alejandro. From what he was saying, Alejandro was beginning to figure out where the doctor was going with his monologue. With him standing so close, Alejandro was a bit unsettled by the cyborg aspect of Dr. Renard, but he was also curious about how he had developed it all, including the tech that had saved his life. If Alejandro could get his hands on technology like that, the sky was the limit to what could be done with it.

"You want revenge on Chris?" Alejandro asked, sitting back down on the examination table since his legs had started to ache a little. The paper covering the examination table crackled as the sliver of a grim smile crept onto Dr. Renard's face.

"Clever deduction, Alejandro," he said, pulling his lab coat back on. "I've been keeping tabs on that ridiculous show for awhile now and I know all about your debacle with that little raven haired troll."

"Heather?" Alejandro felt a small tug of longing along with the usual spray of venom that came with saying her name aloud.

Curtly, the doctor nodded. "That idiot is planning on starting another season of Total Drama soon. Your favor to me is that _you _will be my inside person, setting up everything I need to exact my revenge."

This was a strange request. Alejandro's psychological therapist had told him to stay away from that reality show in any way, shape, or form, but that was just a promise Alejandro couldn't keep. He'd watched the new season, the ten new contestants and he'd kept tabs on that idiot Sierra's blog; Chris was bringing back lots of previous contestants from Total Drama World Tour and earlier to bump the series' ratings back up again.

This would be a prime opportunity for Alejandro. His insidious mind was already buzzing like a bunch of bees with ideas, plots, plans. The doctor's offer was almost irresistible. Going back on Total Drama would be just what the doctor ordered, what would really get Alejandro back up on his feet.

"Count me in," Alejandro conceded, smirking.

A man in a purple velvet suit stood at the microphone, smiling as he wielded it like a weapon.

"Okay, denizens of New Orleans!" he yelled at the crowd, gesturing with his hand. "You're in for quite a special treat tonight! She was going to wrap up her tour in Miami, but we convinced her to come to New Orleans and put on a grand ol' show for all of you...Without further ado, here she is! The gorgeous and insanely talented Río Rodriguez!"

At the mention of her name, the crowd howled like a huge pack of wolves, hooting and clapping crazily. Standing at the back of the crowd, getting jostled and kicked was the famous TV reality show host Chris McClean. He folded his arms haughtily, irritated as he attempted to find a spot in the crowd where he wouldn't be trampled.

The man in the suit walked away with a grand gesture of his hand and a slim figure walked casually up to the center of the stage. Río looked to be around seventeen, tan, lean, and tall, with long black hair. A guitar and bass had been set up already and she was toting a small brass trumpet. A hush settled over the frenzied crowd as she raised the trumpet to her lips and started to play.

It was just a simple melody at first, nothing very impressive, but already she had the entire crowd transfixed and mesmerized. Chris just stood there with his arms folded and an arched eyebrow. _This _was the girl that his competition Blainely was so excited about dragging onto her show?

So far, the only detail that really stood out about Río to Chris was that she was wearing a suit instead of a dress or a scanty outfit like any other insanely popular teen singing sensation. A minute passed and Chris realized that he'd been too quick to judge.

The trumpet began to shriek and squawk as Río made the notes slide up and down the scale with ease. At the same time, she began to dance, her shoes clacking rhythmically on the surface of the stage. The more complex her melody, the more complex her dance steps became. She spun around, even leaped into the air a few times, her suit jacket flying out behind her like a pair of wings.

As if that weren't enough, she slid back in one of routines, exchanging the trumpet for the guitar and immediately started playing a whole slew of chords. With the voice of an angel, Río started to crow to the crowd, her dance routine stopping altogether. The song had the typical sappy dappy love related lyrics, but even though Chris wasn't very moved, he saw several people around him burst into tears.

The performance continued with Río moving from the guitar to strumming the base, more dance steps and singing, her playing the trumpet along with the bass or guitar. She went on for several minutes, showing the epitome of her obvious talents for playing instruments, singing, and dancing. Clearly, she was a huge hit, since a constant state of high energy radiated throughout the crowd. Despite himself, Chris found himself getting a bit excited, too, wondering what the girl wonder would do next.

Once the show ended, Río was in no way humble: She performed a several step dance move and ended in the splits, pumping her fists to the air.

"This all for you awesome people!" she screamed at the crowd.

"WE LOVE YOU RIO!" came a unanimous roar.

Men and women alike were rushing to the stage, shouting and yelling, reaching out to her. Plugging his ears, Chris extricated himself from the general populace and slithered on the fringes of the crowd towards the stage. He easily made it past security and backstage. Quickly, he walked across the space, reaching the infamous Río before she could disappear into her dressing room.

"Who are you?" she asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Straight to the point, I like that." Chris smiled. "I'm Chris McClean and I'm here to offer you a spot on the new season of Total Drama K-O. What do you say?"

Río narrowed her eyes. "What would I be doing?"

"Helping perform the musical numbers," Chris said casually. "Making the contestants look like idiots. Compete for three million dollars."

"Three million dollars?" Río smiled. "Easiest three million I'll ever make. I've seen your show. I know the whole schtick. Count me in."


	2. 2: An Intern's View

2: An Intern's View

The studio doors opened and the eighteen-year-old girl stood there, pursing her lips and scared out of her mind. She was short in stature, had blue eyes and long brown hair; she wore a baggy yellow T-shirt with a smiley face on it, black leggings, and short brown boots. Nervously, she walked into the studio, cursing her friend for mixing up her application to be a graphic design intern with an application to be a Total Drama intern.

_It was a mistake_. Katy rolled her eyes as she remembered her friend saying that. Her friend had been harassing her to try out for Total Drama with her ever since the very first season. Even when she hadn't gotten into any season of Total Drama, her friend was still a rabid fan and redirected her focus to becoming a freaking intern. Of course, her friend had filled out an application to be an intern, too, but she'd been denied for whatever reason while Katy had been accepted.

The studio was huge and capacious, the size of an airplane hangar. Employees were scattered everywhere, working like ants to set up lighting, booms, cameras, the whole nine yards. There was a set at the back with several rows of gray seats: the area where the competitors were going to sit. Katy's job was to stay behind the scenes and do little tasks, whatever Chris or Blainely wanted during the commercial breaks.

Katy had heard about the death toll of Total Drama interns. She felt a huge lump form in her throat as she scanned the huge space, looking for somebody to assign her her first chore...

"Hey! You must be the new intern?"

The sound of the voice frightened Katy and made her jump five feet into the air. As she turned around, Katy realized that her heart was beating crazily and her nerves were at their highest level. She was so frightened and anxious, she knew she was going to puke at any given moment.

The person talking to her was Blainely, her smile as fake as it was on TV. Katy's stomach twisted and flip flopped as she struggled to talk to the reality show TV host-

"You're shy, aren't you?" she said, talking to Katy as if she were ten years old. "Of course, you already know who _I _am. So, what's your name?"

"K-katy," Katy replied, already not liking Blainely and hating the stutter in her voice. She tried to keep her irritation to herself.

"Alright." Blainely clapped her hands, pleased. "Go to the front and get the contestants, would you? I'm needed in make-up. And...pick up a latte for me on the way, would you?"

Blainely skipped off, leaving Katy confused. It was going to be an interesting experience working under both Blainely _and _Chris, the powerhouses of reality television. Wordlessly, Katy walked to the front, shaking her head. If she was still alive after this ridiculous adventure, she was going to kill her friend and write a tell-all book.

Clenching her fists, Katy stomped towards the vague "front", if a red, flaky garage door could count as "front". Katy reached down and grabbed the handle and pulled, having difficulty hefting it upwards. The garage door was heavy and she managed to pull it upwards by at least an inch, but then it clattered back down, landing on the toe of her boot.

She yelped, a short and piercing sound. To her relief, the garage door was pulled up and it made a series of _rat-tat-tat _sounds as it rolled upward. It opened up to bright sunshine and pale blue sky and a bunch of teenagers standing around, talking. A few stopped what they were doing and shot curious looks at Katy. Gritting her teeth, Katy could feel pangs of pain from her foot. Her attention zoomed away from her foot when she noticed that somebody was looking at her.

It was a dude close to six feet tall, tan skin, piercing green eyes, short brown hair, with broad shoulders and obviously a body builder. He was wearing a long sleeved button-up black shirt with the buttons near the top unbuttoned to reveal the top of his pecs, tight black jeans, and black boots. Overall, he looked like he was about two years older than Katy and straight off the cover of a model magazine.

_Wow, he's sexy_...Katy couldn't help blushing and drooling. Usually, she wasn't interested in looking at guys or relationships, but this guy was making her stare, making her body temperature crank up a couple of degrees.

"Are you alright, beautiful?" he asked, smiling and winking. "_Me llamo Jose..._"

"I'm fine," Katy replied, surprised that she could speak. "I'm-"

Suddenly, another guy walked up and he looked extremely similar Jose, perhaps number 2 to him in a list of the sexiest guys in a model magazine. He was shorter than Jose by several inches and had to stand on tip toe to glare into his face.

Alarmed, Katy backpedaled a few steps.

"What do you want...Al?" Jose asked him, looking irritated.

Alejandro growled, frustrated and then started yelling at him in full blown Spanish. Katy's eyes widened as she recognized a few cuss words in the exchange and then things blew out of proportion when the two brothers erupted into a vicious fist fight, yelling at each other.

In the background, Katy noticed the other competitors looking at them. Some didn't even notice the spat: they were all looking at a raven haired girl in a sky blue tube top and miniskirt who kept batting her eyelashes at them.

Katy recognized the other competitors.

Gwen was standing off to one side, arms folded, next to Duncan and they were smiling at each other, commenting on the fight. Beside them was Cody, glaring at Duncan while he tried to wriggle out of one of Sierra's bear hugs; Sierra's pink and purple hair was pulled back into a short ponytail.

Heather stood off to one side, arms folded and smirking as she shamelessly cheered on Jose. Next to her stood Lindsay, wrinkling her brow and staring at Tyler, who was one of the guys transfixed with the raven haired girl. Next to Lindsay stood LaShawna, who looked flat out annoyed: Harold was one of the guys ogling the girl, too. Geoff and Bridgette stood next to each other, Bridgette sneaking looks at Alejandro, Geoff sneaking looks at the girl, and then the two looking at each other, obviously wanting to make out.

Owen stood by himself, looking at the fight and then at the girl, his stomach gurgling as a perplexed look crawled onto his face. A few feet behind him, Izzy was hunched close to the ground, scrawling equations into the dirt with the tip of a stick.

It looked like none of this was going to get anywhere, so Katy wondered if she should break up the fight...

Quickly, Katy peered over her shoulder into the studio. Her eyes widened and her stomach dropped when she saw Chris and Blainely strutting towards the set, smiling and unaware of one another. Disaster was inevitably about to strike.

Katy took a deep breath and quickly collected herself. "CUT IT OUT!" she screamed at Alejandro and Jose.

Then she stood at her full height, folding her arms behind her back as she tried to look commanding or authoritative. "Okay, Chris and Blainely need you guys on set ASAP," Katy said bluntly. "Follow me...please."

"Did you just say Chris _and _Blainely?" Heather balked, a few shocked stares turning towards Katy.

"Aren't you a contestant?" LaShawna pointed at Katy and raised an eyebrow.

Katy sighed heavily. "I'm an intern," she said. "Now, please...the show's about to start..."

Katy turned and started marching towards the set, trying to look braver and more confident than she was feeling. She could hear the contestants whispering behind her, Alejandro's and Jose's bickering the loudest of the noise that the group was making.

Relief flooded through Kate as soon as she reached the set. The contestants took seats, scattered all over and Kate looked around for a place to get a coffee before Blainely could pick her out of the crowd. Despite the make-up, Blainely looked wide-eyed and stressed. As soon as she saw Chris, it was obvious that her blood pressure was rising. But she was better at faking a smile than Chris; Chris looked like his face was going to break like a pane of glass and fall all over the floor.

As the last adjustments were being made, Chris approached Blainely, letting his distaste show.

"What are _you _doing here?" he demanded.

"The producers wanted me to host..." Blainely was twisting a strand of hair around her index finger.

"_I'm _the host!" Chris barked. "Get off the set!"

Another nervous intern walked up, wearing headphones. "Um...the producers wanted you both as hosts this season to raise ratings..." He gulped as the two of them turned to glare at him and he quickly raced for cover behind the closest camera operator.

"I can't believe this...!" Chris complained, raising his arms.

"I know," Blainely agreed, tilting her head and frowning. "I'm a _much _better host than you."

"What?" Chris gritted his teeth and his face flared red.

The contestants watched with huge eyes, and varied expressions. Tension was raising quickly and if there was anything they all knew way too well it was not to mess with Chris. As Chris' face flared deeper shades of red, smoke curtailed out of his ears and Blainely just stood there, smiling blithely and looking superior.

"Um...show starts in 5," a cameraman nervously called from behind his camera.

Just then, Katy was coming back to the set, carrying a latte. She saw the cameraman counting down on his fingers, just as he reached three, Chris tackled Blainely to the ground and the petty fight began. Katy dropped the latte, brown liquid and foam trailing out of the biodegradable cup as she watched in stunned silence.

:Episode 1:

The cameras started rolling and all of them trained in on the oblivious, wrestling hosts.

Ferociously, Chris grabbed a hank of Blainely's hair and pulled while she slapped at his face. When the slapping became ineffective, Blainely kicked Chris in the crotch, then sprang with sprightly grace to her feet and stood in front of the camera.

"Hello, I'm Blainely! And this is-"

She was cut off as Chris pushed her out of the camera's view, smiling weakly and in obvious pain.

"I'm Chris and this is Total Dra-"

Roughly, Blainely pushed Chris out of the camera view.

"As I was say-"

Chris pushed Blainely away again, glaring, but pasting a smile on his face as soon as he was in front of the camera again.

Before he could say one more word, Blainely grabbed the sleeves of his shirt and he grabbed her arms. The two gritted their teeth and started pushing each other, trying to shove the other out of the way.

"Total Drama gets more ratings than all of your stupid shows combined!" Chris growled.

"Oh, yeah?" Blainely spat in his face. "Well, I have five Grammys!"

"For your fake butt?" Chris howled, shoving her harder. "Everybody knows that you've had a bunch of plastic surgery done!"

"Oh...that's rich! This coming from the guy who started out in a boy band!"

"At least my boy band got one platinum album before we broke up," Chris steamed. "Remember your _only_ album? You sounded like a dying cow!"

The two pressed their faces together, snarling and glaring. It was obvious that a bigger fight was about to break out. The contestants were standing up and cheering, hollering loudly, cheering for either Chris or Blainely or both.

"About time Chris got a taste of his own medicine!" Duncan howled, loving the showdown.

"Definitely!" Harold gave Duncan a high-five.

Everything seemed so surreal. Katy snapped out of her stupor and shook her head. Already this place was a mad house and she'd barely even been there for ten freaking minutes. Her fear dissipated and was replaced by fury. She was here to go on coffee runs and other trivial stuff. Couldn't she do that for at least the _first_ episode of this stupid show before things became chaotic?

Without thinking, Katy sloshed through the coffee, right towards Chris and Blainely. Gritting her teeth she pushed the two of them apart and then faced the camera, feeling herself erupting like a volcano. Beside the camera, another intern helpfully held up a cue card and looked at her hopefully.

Katy quickly scanned it, then looked directly into the camera:

"My name's Katy and I'm an intern," she said with conviction. "This is Total Drama K-O. Fifth season, baby! We're here with sixteen contestants, some that you all know and love and our two newest cool cats: Jose and Rio!"

The camera followed Katy as she walked away from the camera towards the seats where Jose and Rio were sitting. Jose nodded and winked at the camera, Rio smiled and gave a little wave.

"Okey dokey," Katy continued, furrowing her brow and feeling stressed. "This time around, there's a new twist. _Nobody _is competing by themselves or in teams anymore..." A gasp radiated through the contestants and they all directed looks at each other and whispered.

"For some asinine reason, you're all gonna be competing as couples," Katy continued.

The camera backed up as she walked forward and squinted at another new cue card the intern was holding up.

"Owen and Izzy-" Owen looked at Izzy with wide eyes and she raised an eyebrow and started jiggling her leg as she put on a skeptic facial expression.

"-Duncan and Gwen-" Duncan and Gwen grinned at each other, Gwen blushing a little.

"-Tyler and Lindsay, Harold and LaShawna-" Both couples smiled. LaShawana kissed Harold on the cheek and Lindsay started squeezing Tyler like a huge stuffed animal.

"-Geoff and Bridgette-" The routine make-out scene started.

"-Cody and Sierra-" Cody's face turned as white as a sheet while Sierra squealed. Her squeal was so loud, everybody was staring at her. Katy stopped mid-sentence and then Chris and Blainely regained their bearings, rushing to get back into the camera view, but Chef stopped onto the set and folded his arms, stopping them.

"Let her finish," Chef said.

"But-" Chris and Blainely tried to shuffle around Chef, but he spread his arms and frowned.

"Do you really want to make yourselves look like bigger fools?"

That temporarily shut up Chris and Blainely.

Biting her lip, Katy blinked and then cleared her throat. "Really?" she called to the intern after reading the cue card and when he nodded, Katy felt her stomach drop.

"Jose and Rio...," she finished in a rush. "Alejandro and Heather."

The last words were an instant death sentence.

Katy wanted to be cut out of the camera view. She went as white as Cody when she turned with the camera towards the gathering of contestants. On one side of the set, Alejandro looked like he'd just swallowed a bomb and Heather looked like she'd just swallowed rat poison. A long silence passed and then the two of them gruffly pushed other contestants aside until they were nose to nose.

Glaring at each other, they turned towards Katy, Chris, and Blainely, then pointed at each other.

"I can't be with him!", "I can't be with _her_!"

Katy rushed up and stood in-between them, pushing them apart.

"No more fighting, _please_!" she begged.

Roughly, Heather pushed her out of the way and Katy fell face first onto the floor of the set. When she pulled herself back up, she lifted her hand towards her nose and pulled it back; her fingers were covered in blood. Face searing with pain, Katy started to cry and raced off of the set, the camera mercilessly catching every fleeting step.


	3. 3: Dance of DOOM

3: Dance of DOOM

Heather reached out and grabbed the collar of Alejandro's shirt, gritting her teeth and snarling into his face.

After not getting her million after season 3 and being absent in season 4, the last thing she needed was to be in the same place at the same time as her designated rival. A year had been enough to calm her down and get her into better physical shape than she'd ever been before; she was even on good terms with Eva now and raking in money from making guest appearances on other various reality shows. Coming back to Total Drama, Heather felt more relentless and determined to win than she ever had before.

As soon as she'd seen Alejandro again, though, she'd felt an unexpected flurry of emotions: anger, intense longing, competitiveness. All of it was crushing down on her as she glared into his eyes and felt herself reliving the events of Total Drama World Tour all over again. She gritted her teeth and tugged at his shirt collar more gruffly this time, wishing that the set-up for Total Drama K-O was anything _but _what it was set up as.

"Oh-ho-ho!" Heather could hear that bitch Blainely getting way too pumped up about the tension bubbling between her and Alejandro. "I practically _live _for this kind of drama!"

"As much as I-I mean, everybody wants to see you two claw each other's eyes out, that's _not _gonna help you in the first challenge!" Chris echoed her.

Frustrated, Heather huffed and released Alejandro, collapsing back into her seat. She made a point of not looking at him again, giving him the silent treatment. Of course, Heather was fully aware that she was getting the same kind of chilly reception from him.

That was when Chris walked up to the center and smirked, happy to be back in his designated role once again. "Your first challenge is going to be..." Chris paused for dramatic effect and Chef made noises to emphasize the suspense. All of the contestants' eyes followed Chris' hand as he gestured to the left side of the huge room. The cameras followed his hand gesture as well.

Blainely took the camera sweep as an opportunity to enter the focus of the camera again. "Look at this spread!"

She pointed at the set-up. There were bear traps spread all over, two circular craters in the floor filled with writhing blue and white sharks _and _piranhas. Two guillotines with blades raised and ropes positioned on the floor that could be tripped with one wrong placement of the foot. And wandering through the wreckage, wielding an old-fashioned scythe, was a smirking Sasquatachanawkwa.

"It's a _real _death defying feat!" Blainely crowed, her eyes widening. "You guys are really going to be depending on your honeys here...One wrong move and-" Blainely used her index finger to pretend to cut a line across her neck. "_Off with your head_! Or your arms, or your leg, or-"

"We get it!" the contestants roared.

:Confessional-La Shawna:

"I can't believe the confessional's in the bathroom..._again_!" LaShawna smacked her forehead and shook her head. "I can already tell that this season's gonna be harder than the previous two...If I can survive this challenge, I swear I'll make an entire platinum record with the Total Drama Brothers about _eating healthy_."

LaShawna looked horrified and shivered.

:End Confessional:

"_I _wanted to use that line!" Chris complained and Blainely tittered, satisfied for her success in verbally one-upping Chris.

Suddenly, Chef wandered up to Chris, tapped him on the shoulder and then whispered urgently into his ear. Everyone watched as Chris' beady black eyes widened and as soon as Chef finished talking, Chris was dead silent. Then Chef relayed the same information to Blainely as well. Both of them were unusually silent for an entire solid minute, looking at each other and then away.

The silence was unnerving, considering both of the hosts practically lived to yammer a mile a minute.

Heart beating faster, Heather quickly stole a glance at Alejandro. He briefly looked back at her, his face reflecting the curious look on hers. As soon as her eyes met his, Heather quickly looked away again and noticed that all of the other contestants were just as curious as her.

When Chris and Blainely didn't come out of their shock, Chef dived towards the camera's eye, his brow knitted. "Chris and Blainely...have to participate in the challenge as well."

:Confessional-Chris:

Chris glared at the camera, steam roiling and twisting out of his ears.

"This is vengeance for me blowing the entire World Tour budget, isn't it?" he exploded. "It's not enough that I lost my plane and Blainely's my fricking _co-host_, but this, too? Oh...you guys are soo lucky I love my job enough to tolerate this crap!"

"Are you just about done in there, _drama queen_?" Blainely gibed from the other side of the bathroom door.

Chris folded his arms and huffed. "Shut up and wait your turn!"

:End Confessional:

All of the contestants went wide-eyed. Sierra was glaring wickedly at Chris, really showing her evil side while Duncan was laughing up a storm. Some of the other contestants were laughing and pointing as well, high-fiving, too. For a brief second, Heather turned towards Alejandro and they jubilantly high-fived, but as soon as they realized what they were doing, they turned away from each other.

"Okay...for this challenge, each couple needs to come up with a dance that they'll perform on the obstacle course," Chef continued, since Chris and Blainely were now arguing heatedly with each other. "Survive the course for at least two minutes and then yours truly will be judging it on a 1 to 10. You have two minutes to discuss what you're going to do and your music choice with your partner...starting now!"

Grudgingly, Heather turned to look at Alejandro and he was looking back at her. The clock was ticking, putting Heather on edge and she could practically feel the icicles spewing from Alejandro's gaze.

"Okay, so...we'll have to work together," Heather said in an attempt to break the ice.

Alejandro's shoulders slumped and he glared at her. "Just know that I am only willing to work with you to win the three million dollars."

Heather glared back, feeling a few needles prickling at her heart with that comment. "That's the same reason for me, too."

Something churned in her gut as she watched Alejandro tap his chin and look off into space. When he wasn't glaring at her, he was almost...tolerable. If only they weren't fighting and furious and only competing for the money...Heather stopped the thought train right there. "What if" type thoughts would only complicate things further.

"I've got it!" Alejandro said, looking sideways at her. "We will do the tango."

"The tango?" Heather looked at him incredulously.

"It's a very beautiful and professional dance..." Alejandro replied. "You were able to do it well enough atop a speeding locomotive."

From the look on his face, Heather could tell that he was holding back a whole slew of spiteful comments. She steeled herself, trying not to let herself get frustrated with him to the point where they'd lose the challenge. Sighing, she saw the logic behind his idea and had to agree.

"Okay," she said with a nod, knowing that was probably going to be one of the few things she actually agreed with him on, if the only thing.

"Your two minutes are up!" Chef called out. "Tyler and Lindsay? You're up first."

Lindsay looked nervously at the obstacle course, then Tyler whispered something reasuring to her and she smiled. They weaved through the seats over to the course on the other side of the room and the camera followed them. Everyone watched in nervous anticipation, wondering how well this would go and regretting signing the insurance waivers before TDK-O, freeing the show from any responsibility for their injuries.

Near the closest crater, a crazy techno rhythm booted up and Tyler started doing a random step dance while Lindsay spun and shook next to him. They slowly moved their way through the course, completely out of step with each other. At one point, Lindsay tried to twirl and just barely missed stepping into the teeth of a bear trap. The dance was so sporadic and weird, the sharks and piranhas looked up from the craters with wide, confused eyes. Even Sasquatchanawkwa looked unsure of what to make of it.

Finally, Tyler started shifting back and forth and Lindsay joined him, her hair flipping about.

"Ooh-ooh!" Lindsay started walking backwards while still doing the point. "Go Tyler! Go Tyler!"

Tyler went to the floor and started trying to do the worm. He flopped up and down and wriggled a little while Lindsay enthusiastically cheered him on. He got a bit too close to the rim of a crater and a piranha leaped up, biting the scruff of his track suit pants with its sharp teeth. Both Tyler and Lindsay noticed this and started screaming, Tyler scream growing progressively higher in pitch as the piranha tried to drag him into the crater.

"No!" Lindsay cried, grabbing both of Tyler's hands. "My boyfriend's _not_ sushi!"

She started trying to pull him out of the crater and several of the others sharks and piranhas in the hole grabbed on to their friend and started helping it pull. It became an insane tug-of-war as Lindsay planted her boot heels in the floor and strained, trying desperately to pull him back out, but it was a very feeble attempt on her part since she was being pulled in, too.

As she watched from the crowd, Heather could feel her heart hammering in her chest and she was gripping her seat in an iron grip, her knuckles turning white in the effort. _She's gonna die..._Heather thought, her eyes widening. "LINDSAY!"

Finally, she stood up, memories from TDI flashing through her mind. She ran over to Lindsay, gripped her from the back and then started helping her pull. Both of them tugged, but the predator fish were just so unbelievably strong.

Tyler fell over the lip of the crater and into it. The piranha had pulled his pants down by now and his underwear was visible to the entire world now: white briefs speckled with pink and blue hearts. Noticing this, Tyler moaned piteously and looked up at Lindsay, hoping that she didn't think any less of him for his choice in underwear. Not to mention, he was still fearing for his life.

Seconds later, Lindsay fell in after him and Heather gritted her teeth as she saw herself sliding towards the lip of the crater, too. What got her was Lindsay looking up at her with her big, blue eyes, a question in them. Fearing for the worst, Heather squeezed her eyes shut and mouthed: "I'm sorry, Lindsay."

Suddenly, Heather felt a strong pair of arms around her waist, felt herself being pulled back. Heather's eyes snapped back open and she tightened her grip on Lindsay, pulling her back again. With a bit more effort, Lindsay and Tyler were successfully drawn out of the crater. Even though he wasn't wearing any pants now, Tyler looked extremely relieved. Just as relieved as he was, Lindsay drew him into her arms and started spattering a bunch of kisses on his cheek.

Smiling, Heather turned to see who had helped pull them out of the crater. There was no one behind her. Blinking, she looked around, trying to discern who it might have been, but she saw no one. Confused, she shrugged and wandered back to her seat.

Tyler and Lindsay got a 4 overall, followed by "boos" and outright protests from the other contestants until Chef notched it up to a 7. Just to be fair.

The rest of the challenge went by in a slight blur.

To the beats of a hip-hop song, Harold and LaShawna were two of the better dancers, successfully bobbing and weaving through the course in a synchronized break dance routine, Harold ending the routine by just barely missing the blade of a guillotine by mere inches. Their performance scored them an extremely well-earned 10.

They were followed by Cody and Sierra, who performed some obscure folk dance with just as obscure accordion and harmonica music; Cody barely kept up with Sierra's furious pace, stumbling and messing up almost the entire time. A few times, Sierra swept Cody over the craters in elaborate twirls and she ended up kicking Sasquatachanawkwa in the kiwis when he came close to Cody. The worst damage for their dance routine was Cody missing a few strands of hair on his bangs and an average score of 5 from Chef since the dancers weren't as "synchronized" as they could be. His comment was met by a raspberry from Sierra.

Frowning, Heather looked at her shaking hands, re-living the scene with Tyler and Lindsay over and over again. She kept shivering, having difficulty getting herself to calm down from the high level of fear and adrenaline. Valiantly, she continued trying to regulate herself. Over it all, she kept wondering who had rescued _her_. A few times, she glanced over at Alejandro, who was completely silent and cryptic as he observed their competition.

Duncan and Gwen took a very bizarre approach, dancing like a pair of zombies out of a horror movie to a very grim and gloomy musical number with a woman screaming in it every so often. A few times, Duncan even leaped over the craters and got the now recovered Sasquatch to chase him while Gwen swung around the guillotines like they were May poles. Overall, they received a 9.5 for their performance since Chef was impressed by the originality, but the daredevil factor was "so two months ago" in the dance world, apparently.

Following them were Geoff and Bridgette who performed an elegant and graceful waltz. A lot of the time, they had a very strong grip on each other and the other wasn't very far away. They both looked fearful and nervous, but managed to get every step right on key. Their dance was so moving, the Sasquatch watched with wide eyes, but the sharks and piranhas weren't convinced. Geoff made sure that those never got anywhere near Bridgette. Once they finished, Chef awarded them a 6.5, since he was slightly moved, but the dance was way too traditional for his tastes.

Next up were Owen and Izzy. Izzy's eyes were wide and she was absolutely _thrilled _while Owen looked kind of scared.

"I'm allergic to _dying_!" he squealed.

Izzy had a tendency to phase between Brainiac and bat-shit insane. Right now, she was the second and she flashed a huge smile at Owen. "We'll be fine!" she coaxed.

"If you say so..." Owen muttered as he let one rip.

A huge stink cloud rolled through the air, filling the room. Everyone was plugging their noses, waving at the air and groaning.

Izzy started flapping her arms like a chicken and Owen reluctantly followed her as the inappropriately happy "Chicken Dance" filled the air. She swung on the frames of the guillotines and arced through the air like a gymnast, relishing the experience while Owen awkwardly stepped around the bear traps and looked at the hungry sharks and piranhas licking their lips and staring fixedly at him. _He_ was the buffet of choice here and he didn't like it one bit.

"Okay guys..." Owen raised his hands and stopped dancing.

The sharks and piranhas were getting up out of the craters and slithering towards him, staring with huge, hungry eyes. Even the Sasquatch backed up, looking for the nearest exit. Terror streaked through Owen and he let another really nasty smelling one rip while simultaneously peeing his pants. Even the Sasquatch backed up, looking for the nearest exit.

"Look Owen! They wanna play!" Izzy yelled enthusiastically, dipping through the air and kicking two of the piranhas back into their craters.

She knocked out a few more of Owen's predators while Owen continued to back up, squealing like a frightened pig as he did so. A few got close to him, tying bibs around their necks and bringing out forks and knives. But just as they were opening their mouths filled with rows of razor sharp teeth, they took one whiff of the air and instantly fainted.

"Your time's up!" Chef called out. "You two get a 7.5, since you made tonight's dinner _a lot_ easier to cook." He chuckled at his comment as he took the unconscious fish by the tails and dragged them all away.

"Whew!" Owen sighed in obvious relief as Izzy pulled him off of the obstacle course. Halfway back to their seats, Owen noticed that a piranha had clamped itself to her rear end.

"Uh, Izzy...?" Sheepishly, he pointed at it and Izzy laughed.

"His name's Bitey!" she told him. "I'm keeping him!"

"Okay..." When "Bitey" started eying him, Owen edged back a few steps, shivering.

Furrowing her brows, Heather could feel a shiver rocket down her spine. Keeping a pet piranha had to be one of the craziest things Izzy had done and she'd done quite a few crazy things.

"Okay, Jose and Rio?" Chef lazily waved and the couple walked towards the obstacle course, sharing a pair of superior smiles and holding hands.

Heather rolled her eyes. That was when Alejandro tapped her lightly on the shoulder and leaned towards her to whisper in her ear: "Watch these two _closely_."

In response, Heather simply nodded then watched him as he pulled away. For another second, she stared fixedly at him and a crazy idea occurred to her. Could he be the one that saved her and helped pull Tyler and Lindsay out of that crater? Watching him for a few more long, intense seconds, Heather could feel her heart glow and the side of her mouth threatening to twitch up into a smile. But she caught herself and turned back away, re-focusing her attention on Jose and Rio. Besides, there was no way he could be the one that had done it when he'd made it blatantly clear that he hated her guts.

If he'd been the one in her place, would she have rescued him? Shaking her head, Heather forced herself to return her focus to the game and winning. If she wanted her three million, she needed to _focus_. That was one thing Alejandro had the hammer on the nail with. If they wanted to win, they needed to keep tabs on their competition, _especially _Jose and Rio since they were new and nobody knew what they were capable of.

A fast and energetic Latin musical number filled the air. Heather felt her heart jumping in time with the shaking maracas.

Jose took Rio's hand and guided her into a twirl, pulling her towards him as they crept into the obstacle course. Bobbing back and forth, Rio flicked her ponytail and winked at a piranha leaping up out of a crater. With an effect similar to Justin's mesmerizing looks, the piranha twitched and fell helplessly back into the crater, its pupils a pair of hearts. Letting go of her hand, Jose and Rio started to step back and forth, walking in a circle with their faces close, snapping their fingers at their sides. Their intimate proximity made the Sasquatch sigh and tears sprung to its eyes.

Even the sharks and piranhas were captivated by Jose and Rio, clapping in time to the music. Easily, the two had everyone's attention; Heather could feel Alejandro burning up with fury and envy next to her. She could feel herself prickling with jealousy at Rio's gorgeous looks and her flirty sway. Of all the girls in this season, Rio was probably going to be her toughest competition. Now she was kind of glad that she was working with Alejandro rather than against him; Jose and Rio were going to be quite a handful.

For dramatic effect, as the music was coming to a close, Jose pulled Rio close and then lowered her into a slow dip. Once the music ended, Jose leaned in towards her and shamelessly kissed her in front of everyone. Several of the contestants were cheering and teary eyed. Out of the corner of her eye, Heather saw Duncan's eyes looked kind of...wet and he was trying to suppress a smile.

Chef was bawling like a baby, using the fringe of his apron to dab at his eyes. "That was beautiful!" he crowed, clapping. "10! You guys get a definite 10!"

Jose offered his arm to Rio and escorted her back to their seats. They were sharing a secret smile, looking like they had the entire competition in the bag.

Heather gasped and turned to look at Alejandro. They shared a steely look and just from that Heather knew that he was just as determined to beat those two as she was. The two of them were up and marching purposefully towards the obstacle course before Chef could even call their names. Feeling fierce, Heather twisted her fingers through Alejandro's and absentmindedly tapped her foot as she waited for the music to start.

The music started with a slow and long flourish from a trumpet. Alejandro guided her into a dip in time with the music. As soon as the music roared to life with a bunch of exotic drum beats, Alejandro guided her back up and then went straight into a series of complex foot work. Looking at his face, Heather easily kept up.

Things started getting tougher: Alejandro launched Heather up onto his shoulder and then leaped onto the frame of one of the guillotines and Heather crept down from his shoulders, dragging him back away and then they started spinning like a top, dodging around several bear traps. To be a smart-alack, Alejandro stuck his boot into the center of several of the traps along the way, pulling it back just in time to hear the traps snapping shut behind him with several mechanical clangs.

As soon as the spinning stopped, Alejandro guided her into walking forward, arms stretched out in front of them. They were smiling at each other and Heather could feel a subliminal thrill from possibly outdoing Jose and Rio. She felt her heart blossom into a flower as the music started to die. Her eyes met Alejandro's and she could feel all of her feelings from TDWT rushing back like a tidal wave. And she could see the same passion reflected in Alejandro's eyes.

Like Jose had done just moments earlier, Alejandro dipped Heather, spinning her before the full descent to add extra flair. The music ended and his face was so close to hers now. Heather's cheeks were burning and she could feel electric currents on the air, the intensity level between them growing. Part of her was wondering when Alejandro was going to kiss her...

"Nice job!" Chef's voice called them back to the present. "Easily a 9.8."

There was applause, tentative applause. Even the Sasquatch and the predator fish were clapping.

Awkwardly, Alejandro brought Heather back up and quickly released her. She backed away from her. The awkwardness just kept growing as they headed back to their seats. Biting her lip, Heather inched away from Alejandro, but she could still feel her heart fluttering crazily like a caged butterfly. Part of her wanted to sit close to Alejandro and kiss him, but a bigger part of her was restraining her.

"That was pretty good." Alarmed, Heather turned and found LaShawna looking at her with a tight smile.

"Thanks," Heather mumbled.

They were silent after that, but for some reason, even though she wasn't looking at her, Heather could swear that LaShawna was smiling.

Still feeling out of sorts, Heather watched as Chef coaxed the bickering Chris and Blainely towards the obstacle course.

"This is gonna be good!" somebody said.

The two hosts looked disgusted as they took each other hand's. Both of them were scowling as they edged onto the obstacle course. Blainely broke out into a huge smile as a song from Chris' 80s teen boy band blared through the huge room. Everybody burst into laughter; Heather rocked back in her seat, clutching her sides as she watched Chris' eyes visibly twitch.

"What the hell, Blainely?" he screeched.

"Come on, Chris! It's _catchy_!" she encouraged, bobbing back and forth. She started moving his arms back and forth, her enjoyment growing as Chris' utter embarrassment and anger increased. Barely a minute into the song, Chris wrenched his hands away from hers.

"I can't do this!" he cried, turning and stomping away from Blainely.

Triumphant, Blainely planted her hands on her hips and smirked. "2 for Blainely, zip for Chris McClean!" she boasted.

Chris stormed all the way off the set, the cameras following him like a flock of buzzards and Heather could swear his cheeks were bright red.

Once Chris was gone, Blainely stepped up to stand next to Chef, who was shaking his head and running his hand down his face. "That was definitely a ratings device..."

"According to Chef's scores, the two winning couples are...Harold and LaShawna...!" Blainely announced, completely unfazed.

Harold and LaShawna stood up, smiling and waving, Harold making a big show of pumping his fist to the air several times saying: "Yeah! Yeah!"

"...Jose and Rio!" she finished.

Jose and Rio stood up and bowed, Rio waving and winking, Jose just grinning.

"Your reward is first choice of the hotel rooms you'll be staying in at the Tierra Inn just across the street! Trust me...you want the suites if you can nab 'em. Ugh." Blainely announced, cringing at the mental image of the inn's rooms that weren't suites. "Yeah, this is a _reward_ challenge, kiddies. You're all staying today! Maybe we'll see a spicy elimination next time!"

When nobody was looking, Jose looked directly at Alejandro and smirked. His look was full of malice and spite. Heather's eyes widened when she saw Alejandro glare right back and then flip up his middle finger at Jose, which Jose gladly returned.

After seeing that, Heather was silently wondering if she'd still be supporting the older Burromuerto brother just because she was still in opposition to Alejandro...

:End of Episode 1:

Heather looked around, making doubly sure that the intern that operated the camera was asleep.

Then she opened up the file he'd been editing of the day's camera footage for the DVD release of the show. Quickly, she fast forwarded the video past the bickering Chris and Blainely, the interfering intern, and everything else until she reached the part where Tyler and Lindsay were dancing. She watched with wide eyes how terrified she'd been. Her face properly caught _exactly _what she'd been feeling at that exact moment.

Then she came to the point in the footage she was looking for.

"HEATHER!" a masculine voice called into the headphones she was wearing.

Her eyes widened even further when she saw Alejandro appear on the screen. In silent awe she watched as he grabbed her around the waist and pulled her, Lindsay, and Tyler out of the crater. As soon as they were all safe, he darted out of the view of the screen.

With a small smile, Heather paused the video and removed the headphones.

As she left the room, she couldn't help feeling warm fuzzies crawling inside of her. She hugged herself as she walked down the hallway, Alejandro filling her mind...

_Oh...you still love me, you still love me..._she thought to herself.

When she reached her hotel room, she lowered her arms and blinked, all of the happy feelings draining away as she ambled in. She flopped onto her bed and looked out the window at the cars rushing by on the street below and the huge warehouse across the street that housed the obstacle course for the dance of DOOM.

Rolling her eyes, she punched her pillow and sighed. _How could I be so stupid? Of course he doesn't love me. He only saved me to save his chances at the three mil. I would've done the exact. Same. Thing. _

Closing her eyes, she tried to drift off to sleep. Part of her really hoped that she was wrong about Alejandro not still being in love with her.

(*Author's Note: Sorry it took me so long to get this up. I was on a major writer's block for this one...I just hope it was worth the wait!)


	4. 4: Who the Hell are Rio and Jose, Anyway

4: Who the Hell _are_ Rio and Jose, Anyway?

Sierra bounced up and down on her bed, gnawing away at the end of a pencil like a gopher. She was clacking away at a lap top and was surrounded by pieces of printed paper, all of them bearing the faces of the two newest contestants.

So far, from research, Sierra had figured out that the newest raven haired girl, Rio, was a famous singer from Mexico. A few times, she'd seen pictures of her in magazines and heard her music on the radio, but other than that, Sierra hadn't really cared too much about her. She'd also seen Jose in a few magazines, too; he was a male model, like Justin, as well as a million other things that Sierra hadn't really kept tabs on.

Until now, anyway. Being officially immersed in Total Drama since World Tour, Sierra's popularity had skyrocketed. She was still the biggest number 1 fan, but it still shocked and elated her that she had her own..._fan base_. It felt like such a coveted holy grail to her! Every time she checked her e-mail now, she got a tiny thrill reading a message from somebody telling her that she was awesome or that they thought she and Cody were a cute couple.

Of course, she had her share of haters, too, but Sierra refused to pay them much mind. Obviously, they were just jealous or pompous stupidheads only flaming her to make themselves feel better.

There was a knock on her door and Sierra looked up suddenly, dropping her pencil. Another knock and she scrambled to her feet, rushed to the door, letting her papers fly around her feet.

"COMING!" she cried, hoping it was her 'Cody-kins' at the door.

When she pulled the door open, she was beaming from ear to ear, but her smile dropped as soon as she saw who was standing there...It was the last person she'd expect.

"I like your smile," Jose said with a chuckle. "It really accents your craziness..."

"Craziness..." Sierra huffed, crossing her arms. "I'm not crazy...Okay, maybe crazy about Cody, but that's just about it."

"You're really quite pretty," Jose continued, raising an eyebrow and shooting her a charming smile. "Does _Cody_ appreciate that smile?"

Sierra's eyes widened. Right off the bat, she recognized the devious glint in Jose's green eyes. And she knew exactly what he was up to. So, apparently, being a giant jerkface was a trait that ran in the Burromuerto family tree? Sierra had already been manipulated by Alejandro, so Jose was going to be hard-pressed in trying to reciprocate Al's tactics.

"I'm very happy with Cody, thank you," she said, kind of baffled by Jose's low blow at her 'marriage' to Cody. "What about _Rio_?"

"Oh...she's just a show girl," Jose replied. "She knows how to act. Just like me."

"So, you're _pretending_ to be in love with her?" Sierra couldn't help being shocked by this, considering how huge a secret romantic she was. And the fact that she'd already added a JoseXRio tab on her official web page...

"This comes off as a surprise to you?" Jose laughed. "We barely even know each other!"

"Why are you here? Telling _me _this?" Sierra balled her fists. "At least that slimeball Alejandro saved his confessions for the frigging _confessional_. Play the game right."

To her irritation, Jose yawned and leaned against the wall, looking at her with a bored expression. "We all know that Alejandro's the scum of the Earth. What else is new?"

"He's your brother!" Sierra protested.

"You can't lecture me on morals," he said snidely. "Just because he's my brother doesn't mean I have to like him."

"I know I wouldn't be able to live him, either," Sierra agreed, rolling her eyes. "He probably plans on going to college and taking classes in World Domination 101."

At that, Sierra was surprised when Jose burst into laughter, high and melodious. It was an admittedly pleasing sound, but nowhere near as sweet as the way Cody sometimes snorted when he laughed.

"That's clever!" Jose smiled. "I knew I was looking in the right neck of the woods for an _alliance_..."

"An alliance?" Sierra narrowed her eyes. "I don't know..."

"Just think about it, okay?" Jose smiled sweetly, lightly tapped her nose, then turned and started walking away while...whistling.

With a cringe, Sierra walked back into her room and stood there, tapping her chin.

An alliance with Jose and Rio would give her and Cody an edge over Al and Heather, since Jose obviously intimidated Al, even if it was just a little bit. But she also knew they were obviously going to backstab them somewhere along the line, so she and Cody would constantly have to have an eye on them.

Temporarily dropping the issue, Sierra opened her door and quietly stalked over towards the Cody's room. She opened the door and peered in: He was halfway off of the bed, rolled up in his sheets and blankets. In one arm he clutched his favorite stuffed emu and he had his thumb in his mouth.

Sierra suppressed a silent squeal. _Oh Cody...you're so cute!_

Silently, she crept into the room, pulling the door shut behind her and wandered over to the sleeping bag she'd set up beside Cody's bed. She settled into it and looked up at Cody with wide, shining eyes. Since she'd been up researching Jose and Rio since 5 o' clock that morning, she was missing out on a huge chunk of her special 'Cody time', as she called it.

Smiling, she reached up, touched Cody's cheek, and closed her eyes.

Geoff was hanging around in the kitchen, watching as Owen shoveled mouthful after mouthful of pancakes into his mouth. Next to Owen, Izzy was more playing with her food rather than eating it. The piranha from yesterday's challenge was clamped to her arm and every so often, she crooned to it softly and fed it a chunk of her pancakes.

At a spare interval in-between his ravenous eating, Owen looked over at Geoff.

"Where's Bridgette?" he asked, his mouth full.

"Still asleep," Geoff replied with a dreamy smile. "She looked so cute, I just couldn't wake her up-"

"That's so _cutee_!" a soprano, unfamiliar voice interrupted.

Geoff and Owen looked up; Rio stood at the edge of the table, carrying a tray and spinning a lock of her hair around her fingers. "Hello Geoff. Hello Owen," she said pleasantly, sitting down in front of them, uninvited. "Sorry to interrupt you."

"Hiya Rio!" Owen called pleasantly around a mouthful of food and Geoff could swear he saw Rio cringe inwardly for a brief moment.

"Oh, that's okay," Geoff replied, prodding his fork into his own pancakes. He was secretly glad that Chef wasn't the one cooking this time. The woman cooking this season didn't seem very fond of cooking inedible mush like Chef was. Owen was probably the only one out of the entire Total Drama cast that couldn't care less whether or not the food was edible; he'd eat a chunk of wood if it was placed in front of him!

"I don't mean to be nosy," Rio said, leaning towards him. "But I couldn't help noticing how close you and Bridgette are, yes?"

Geoff smiled a little. "Bridge and I met through Total Drama. We've been dating since season 1!"

Rio smiled back. "Oh, yes." She sighed heavily and looked away, poking at her pancakes.

Since he'd started dating Bridgette, Geoff was getting better at picking up signals from girls about their feelings. Now that he thought about it, Rio was kind of pretty. Nowhere near as pretty as Bridgette, of course, but definitely the type of girl that made a guy do a double take. Even Owen was looking up every so often from his pancakes to look at her.

Biting his lip, Geoff asked tentatively, "Is...something wrong?"

"Kind of..." There were tears glittering in her eyes now. "I don't want to be a bother, though...I shouldn't burden you with the troubles of my personal life..."

"It's okay," Geoff soothed, looking around. The Tierra Inn's cafeteria was practically empty. It was just his luck; there was nobody around who knew how to talk to girls. With a pang, he wished that Trent were there. Trent knew _exactly _what to say and do around girls.

"It's Jose!" Rio burst out, looking up with narrowed eyes. "He's not intimate at all. Romantic, yes, but that's just for publicity. I love him. A lot. But I don't think he feels the same way about me. I think he's been looking at other girls! I just caught him...flirting with another girl."

She sniffed and then started scrubbing at her eyes with the sleeve of the jean jacket she was wearing.

"He's cheating on me with that intern!" she sobbed. "That stupid intern in the smiley face shirt."

Hearing her, Geoff wrinkled his brow and reached out across the table to pat her wrist. He knew _exactly _what she was going through. For a brief minute, he found himself flashing back to seeing Bridgette being seduced by Alejandro on World Tour, how awful that'd been. His insides twisted, reminding him of his hatred for that slimy snake. He tried to be a cool guy that was on good terms with everybody, but Al and Heather were two people who could really get under his skin-

He came out of his reverie when he realized that Rio had intertwined her fingers through his and was squeezing his hand. She looked up at him with a sheepish smile as tears started falling from her eyes.

"What do I do, Geoff?" she asked, brushing at her tears again.

Quickly, Geoff pushed Alejandro out of his mind and took a deep breath. "If he really loves you, he'll come back and apologize. Be patient with him, okay dudette?"

He smiled as he remembered making up with Bridgette and felt like he'd given her the right advice.

"Thank you, Geoff," she murmured, squeezing his hand again.

For a minute too long, Rio held his hand and looked at him like a longing puppy. It was really starting to bother Geoff and he wrenched his hand away from her, pulled it under the table and then started looking at it as if it were a diseased animal. For some reason, he felt that something was extremely off. Something compelled him to look up.

And he caught a glimpse of Bridgette peering into the cafeteria before she scurried away.

Confused, he turned to look back at Rio, but she was gone. _Poof! _As if she'd just vanished completely into thin air.

Next to him, Owen was shaking his head and even Izzy was giving him a strangely pointed look. Even her pet piranha was looking at him weird.

"What?" he asked, getting even more confused.

They just continued to stare blankly at him.

Unnerved, Geoff stood up and walked across the cafeteria. Once he exited, he found Bridgette leaning against the bottom of the tall wooden staircase in the foyer of the inn. She had her legs pulled up under her chin, her arms wrapped around them. There were tears at the edges of her eyes now, too.

"Bridge?" Helplessly, Geoff reached out towards her.

In reply, she looked up at him, venom in her eyes. "I saw you looking at her!" she cried. "I knew you had the hots for her, but I didn't think you were going to _cheat _on me!"

"Bridge, let me explain-"

Biting her lip, Bridgette started shaking. Furrowing his brows, Geoff watched as she phased between sadness and anger, over and over again. Finally, she took a deep breath and swiped at her eyes, then she stood up and walked up to him, her fists clenched at her sides.

"Look me in the eyes and tell me the truth!" Bridgette demanded. "Were you just flirting with Rio...?"

"No," Geoff answered in a steady voice, looking directly into her eyes.

They both looked at each other for a long moment and Geoff felt a few prickles when he noticed the few flickers of doubt on Bridgette's face. The doubt eventually faded and she just _stared _at him, flexed her fingers. Her unwinding greatly eased Geoff's current stress. Taking a deep breath, he grabbed both of her arms and continued looking directly into her eyes.

"Rio told me that she thought her boyfriend Jose was cheating on her," Geoff explained. "I...I didn't really know what to do. She just started turning on the waterworks and-"

Bridgette's eyes widened. "Heather did something similar with Trent back in season 1!"

"I don't think Heather even knew Alejandro back then..." Geoff didn't see how Heather had anything to do with the current situation.

"Of course she didn't!" Bridgette cried out, exasperated. "I remember Gwen telling me about what happened with Trent. I even watched the episode of TDI with that in it one time. Heather did something similar to what Rio was just trying to do...I think Rio was flirting with you to try to break us up, Geoff!"

Bridgette's words struck a chord with Geoff. He remembered Heather's move on Trent and shuddered when he remembered his nasty argument with Bridgette when he'd accidentally blurted he thought Heather was the hottest girl on the show. After seeing Heather manipulate the game, then Justin, Courtney, and Alejandro, it made sense that Bridgette should be able to pick up on when somebody else was trying to. _She's so smart and so hot! _Geoff thought with a smile.

"Why are you smiling, Geoff?" Bridgette was frowning, eyes narrowed.

"You really are the complete package, Bridge," he said honestly. "Brains and beauty rolled into one."

Bridgette giggled and then looked away, blushing. She pretended to be bashful for a few seconds, then she launched herself at him and started kissing him. Heart pounding, Geoff moaned and they fell to the floor, going into a full-on make-out session.

At the top of the stairs, Rio peeked around the banister and snarled. Nobody could resist her charm, so how had that cowboy hat wearing loser resisted her?

She felt a tap on her shoulder and turned to find Jose standing there. "Brilliant performance," he said, tucking a strand of hair behind his ear.

"But...they didn't break up! And they're onto us now," Rio cried.

"Don't fret, my pet," Jose replied with a sugary smile. "It's best that they do know our true nature. Keeping them guessing too long makes things harder."

"For one thing, I'm not your pet," Rio growled. "Another thing...your plan really sucks so far! You're an idiot if you think we'll get anywhere when everybody else thinks we're just like Alejandro and Heather! They're already on to us, anyway. _I'm_ taking over in making the plans, now."

Jose just chuckled. "Just put up with me for a little while longer," he said. "My plan is foolproof. I can easily get you the three million dollars if you just cooperate with-"

"I can make three million easily off of a concert tour," Rio said icily. "I really _don't_ need you."

"Then what is your motive for being on this show?" Jose frowned at her.

"My motive, you ask?" Rio took on a theatrical tone of voice. "Since you were forced on me as my 'partner in crime', I guess I can tell you...What I want is the challenge. The drama. You can't tell anyone this, Jose, but I'm the reincarnation of Eris, the goddess of _chaos_! I love chaos. And up until now, I've only been able to express it through music. Now, I have the tools at hand to really see it in action!"

Jose pursed his lips. As she talked, Rio's eyes widened and she looked halfway insane. She was an insanely talented and beautiful young woman that could bring a weak man to his knees, but she was definitely not sane. More sane than Izzy, maybe, but still absolutely crazy. Clucking like a mother hen, Jose looked at her and smiled. "You're quite sadistic, aren't you?"

"I guess you could say that," Rio replied, playing with her hair. "Why?"

"I like it."

There was light, bouncy music playing. It definitely wasn't Mozart, but it was classical, one of the few genres of music LaShawna couldn't really stand. She needed a beat that she could _groove _to, not a beat that was bound to put her to sleep. And, to her utter frustration, it was the music that'd been playing all morning.

Gritting her teeth, LaShawna turned to stare at Harold, who was bobbing his head to it as he thumbed through a thick volume about physics. "Can we listen to something with an actual beat to it?" LaShawna complained.

Rolling his eyes, Harold turned off the stereo sitting next to his bed. "That was your favorite radio station," he protested.

"They don't play that kind of crap!" she said.

"Turn it back on for yourself and see," Harold replied, turning another page of his book. "That's the most popular music right now."

Frowning, LaShawna turned the stereo back on and her eyes almost popped out of her head when she realized that Harold was right. She waited for the current song to stop playing and then waited for the radio announcer to name off the song that had just played.

"_...'Bounce' by Rio Rodriguez..."_

Her eyes widened and she looked over at Harold. "Rio's...a famous musician?"

"She beat out the Total Drama Brothers last month for no.1 last month," Harold replied, a slight edge to his voice.

LaShawna frowned. There was something very wrong to her about classical music beating out hip-hop.

_Uno...dos..._

Alejandro silently counted off the number of push-ups in his head. Sweat was running down his face and neck, matting his hair. He'd already done an hour and a half of vigorous exercise, but he was nowhere near done for at least another hour. After being immobile for so long after his accident, he was even more determined to be more physically active than he'd ever been before. Even if that meant working out from as early as 3 in the morning until 8 or 9.

He took a deep breath and glared at the open window, at the pale blue sky outside.

Ever since he'd started working out, the scene from yesterday had been playing endlessly in his mind. Some part of him just couldn't stand the thought of losing her. The moment he'd realized that she was going to fall into that hole, he'd felt such a strong, irresistible urge to go rescue her. And that urge _hadn't_ been driven by his desire to earn the three million. Snorting out a breath, he couldn't figure out what was happening to him.

Last night, he'd had a very vivid dream about Heather and that still kept blossoming in his head, an image he couldn't seem to shake. It played through his mind yet _again _and he grunted in anger, smacking the floor and then just collapsing onto his side in utter frustration. He gritted his teeth and pulled at the bull-shaped pendent around his neck, trying to remember that he was in a very strained alliance with her. There was no love between them at all. Just hate.

That was when the door to his room burst open and Heather walked in, carrying a plate with a bunch of pancakes stacked on it. Bewildered, he watched as she placed them on the bed and then sat down next to it. "You weren't in the cafeteria," she said simply.

Alejandro raised an eyebrow. They both knew that she didn't do stuff like this.

"Don't think too much about it," she barked, folding her arms. "I just thought...I owed you something for...saving me yesterday."

So she knew it was him? From the tone in her voice, he could tell she thought he'd only rescued her to stay in the game and he wasn't going to let her think it was anything different.

"You do owe me," he said, sitting up. "But I will tell you when I want the favor returned."

Heather scoffed. "Oh, _puh-lease_. I know how you get your favors repaid, Alejandro. And I'm not repaying it _your _way. I say, I've _already_ paid it _now_."

She knew exactly how to get under his skin. It was bad enough that Jose was here, but he had to deal with _her_, too. This entire ordeal was going to be an uphill battle...

"You owe me for a lot more than just that..." he said bitterly, feeling his insides burning with anger and hatred.

"I owe you _nothing_," Heather replied snidely, turning up her nose.

That remark revved up Alejandro like a motorcycle. He leaped to his feet and stood over her, grabbing her arms in iron grips like a pair of manacles. Looking into her eyes, he glared heatedly and snorted, watching her cringe slightly as his hot breath hit her face.

"You owe me quite a bit," he said in a low, threatening tone of voice. "I came here with the intention of crushing _you_ into the dirt. No mercy. You really don't realize how fragile our alliance is in this stupid game is, do you?" He leaned in closer towards her, tightening his grip; she glared back at him, letting out a long breath. "I hate you with such a burning intensity, Heather. If I had my way, you'd be at my feet..._begging _and kissing my shoes. You're such a worthless bag of dirt! I don't know what I ever saw in you."

Alejandro backed away a little, breathing hard. He released Heather and turned away, feeling satisfied for just letting the words out. The air was thick and heavy now and he could feel her glaring at him, her gaze boring into his back as a relentless laser beam. She grabbed his wrist and flung him around to face him and he could see the full extent of her fury in her eyes, the fire burning within her.

"I hate you so much, Alejandro!" she screamed.

"I hate you, too," he replied. "I hate you. I hate you. I hate you."

"I hate you. I HATE. YOU."

They kept yelling the three words at each other, trying to drown out the other's words. Every time he heard her say the words, Alejandro felt more fuel for his anger, but felt like a huge shard of glass was being stuck into his heart as well. The screaming match dragged on for three minutes before Heather collapsed onto his bed and rolled onto her side, breathing hard.

Silently, Alejandro watched her, as her chest heaved up and down. She closed her eyes and he could see little, glittering beads of tears on her eyelashes. When she realized that he was looking at her, she opened her eyes and glared heatedly at him. Then she sat up and furiously rubbed at her eyes, him watching her the entire time. He felt a pang of regret for saying what he had, but his pride barricaded him from just breaking down and apologizing.

Heather lowered her arm and looked up at him again. "We...It's only a little while longer that I have to put up with you..." she muttered.

"How about you just repay the favor right now and we call it even?" he suggested, clenching his fists.

"Just drop-"

Without thinking, he leaned in, grabbed her face and kissed her on the lips. It was brief and when he pulled away, she was looking at him with wide, unbelieving eyes. He reached up and touched her chin, trying to keep himself from kissing her again. The desire was unbelievably strong and what really confused him about it was that it was occurring at such an inappropriate time.

"That was just to shut me up," Heather said bitterly. "Don't do it again."

"Don't expect it to happen again," Alejandro replied.

Heather sighed heavily and reached up to touch his hand, pulling it away, firmly, but gently, away from her face. It startled him slightly and he backed away from her, busying himself with picking up the fork on the plate of pancakes.

"Thank you," he muttered.

"No problem," she replied.

Alejandro pretended to be staring at the food, but he watched her as she got up and walked back out the door. Then she slammed the door behind her and Alejandro looked all the way up, finding himself staring at the door.

He felt strangely hollow inside and he didn't know why.


	5. 5: Allow Me to Introduce Myself

5: Allow Me to Introduce Myself,

It was 3 o' clock in the morning and Blainely had sent Kate out to get a frigging caramel latte frappe...thing. As Kate walked out of the front door of the Tierra Inn, she grumbled to herself under her breath, picking at the sleeve of her pajama top. A few times she reached up and touched her now-bandaged nose, feeling huge pangs of irritation and vividly reliving her utter embarrassment even though she felt like she was going to collapse from exhaustion at any given moment now.

There was a 24/7 coffee shop just a couple of buildings away from the Tierra. Part of Kate wanted to just forget this trip and run back to Blainely's room to bark at her "Do it yourself", but Kate persisted. She took another few steps, but stopped suddenly when she noticed a faint movement out of the corner of her eye.

_Just a trick of the light_, she thought to herself and started walking again.

Before she could reach the coffee place, a tall figure popped out of thin air. Startled, Kate took a step back and her breath caught in her throat when she found herself staring into an intense pair of bright crimson eyes. A hand whipped out and grabbed her wrist; the grip was ice cold, sending shivers rippling all throughout her body, up and down her spine.

Fear clutched at her heart as the mysterious figure started reeling her in like a fish on a lure. A hand was clamped over her mouth before she could even let out a scream and she was dragged, struggling and screaming, into the dark shadows of a nearby alley. Utterly terrified, Kate watched as her attacker leaned towards her, the huge collar of a dark overcoat obscuring his face.

He leaned in towards her neck and she saw a bright flash: two long, scythe like fangs. Before she could look away, the fangs sank into the tender skin of her neck and pain radiated up and down her body. It felt like a giant leech was attached to her and refused to let go. The longer the vampire stayed, the weaker Kate felt. Her knees began to wobble and when she looked at her hands, she saw that they were shaking violently.

Finally, she felt the fangs pulled out, but her relief was short lived. She collapsed to the ground and fell unconscious.

The contestants piled out of the Tierra, a few tense and harried after the dramatic events of the morning. Blainely, bedraggled and grumpy, and Chris led the group, pointedly shooting dagger tip glares at each other every spare chance they got. The forward progress stopped when the toe of Blainely's red shoe accidentally hit something. Startled, Kate's eyes flew open and widened even more when she found Blainely glaring down at her, her hands on her skinny hips.

"_There _you are!" she growled angrily. "Sleeping on the job, huh?"

Kate sat up, eyes bloodshot. Jose disbanded from the crowd and rushed to her side, helping her stand back up. Flustered, Kate looked at him with a grateful smile, but the smile vanished as soon as she realized _everybody _was staring at her. And she was wearing only pajamas.

"Go get dressed, get me my damn coffee and meet me on the set!" Blainely demanded, looking like a demon from hell and snapping her fingers for emphasis.

With a sigh, Kate took off back towards the Tierra, her fingers gingerly touching the base of her neck and her cheeks blazing in a ferocious blush.

"I wonder what she was doing out here spreadeagled on the pavement like that..." Jose murmured thoughtfully.

"She was _supposed _to be getting my coffee, but she was probably..." Blainely trailed off into a bunch of incoherent muttering and took off again, and with a bunch of shrugs, the rest of the group followed her.

They passed by the warehouse where yesterday's challenge had taken place and there was a whole group of similar warehouses behind it. All of them were tall and easily the size of at least three football fields. The contestants stared, whispered amongst themselves, all the while following Chris and Blainely. Magically over the whole ordeal with the coffee, Blainely was chattering animatedly:

"_All_ of the challenges are taking place in these warehouses! Not as fabulous as traveling around the world in a plane, but...the producers were really strapped for a budget this season, unfortunately. And I made sure to _insist _on a make-up department-"

Chris hadn't really been listening to Blainely. All he'd heard was a long, steady stream of _"Blah, Blah, Blabbity, Blah..." _Everybody else was focused on Blainely, so he was alone when a hand was clamped over his mouth and he was dragged into the shadows of the nearest warehouse.

Fear bloomed in Chris' chest and next thing he knew, a strong pair of arms was wrapped around his chest and the blade of a knife was positioned at his throat. Blinking, Chris could see his reflection in the knife blade and he watched as it lifted away from his neck...up to his hair. That was when he really started to freak out. He was too devilishly handsome to be apprehended like this!

He started blubbering into the hand clamped over his mouth and that was met by a low, insidious chuckle. Now that he thought about it, Chris could swear that he heard the soft click and whir of gears and cogs as well.

"I remember how fond you are of your hair," a voice whispered thoughtfully into his ear.

Then the knife came up and Chris watched, utterly horrified, as a strand of his hair sailed past his face.

"That's just a warning..._Mr. McClean_." The voice was angry, mocking.

Chris started to squirm as he was whirled around to face his captor. It was a tall man with a wild mane of dark red hair and gray eyes that gleamed like the blade of a rapier. Narrowing his eyes, the man leaned in towards Chris until their noses were touching; Chris felt a violent shiver run down his spine, wondering why nobody had come to his rescue yet.

"I'm going to let you go for now," the man whispered in a low, threatening tone. "You can try to warn the others of me, but by then, _I'll be gone_." He smirked sinisterly. "You probably don't remember me, hmm? Well, you can just call me Dr. Renard. And rest assured, Chris McClean, I _will _be back!"

Finally, Dr. Renard took his hand from Chris' mouth and, right in front of his face, evaporated into thin air. Right before he disappeared, he gave a little wave. When he was completely gone, Chris was still frozen to the spot, staring at the space where Renard had just been with wide, unbelieving eyes. A full grown man had just...vanished into thin air?

His heart was pounding a mile a minute in his chest.

Desperately, he wanted to run and shriek at Chef that his life was in danger, but he was still confused about what had just happened himself. Resisting the urge to bite his newly manicured nails, Chris fled from the spot like a bat out of hell and kept running until he was as far away from that spot as he could get. When he stopped, he was breathing in ragged pants and glancing worriedly over his shoulder.

Thankfully, there were no other signs of dark red hair or crazed, manic eyes...

Alejandro watched uneasily as Heather settled on the bleacher stair next to him. From the way her eyes kept darting everywhere like a pair of pinballs, he could tell that she was just as anxious as he was. Some part of him wanted to reach out and touch her hand, but an even bigger part of him felt a huge revulsion to that thought. Feeling kind of ridiculous, he found himself edging a few more inches away from Heather in a feeble attempt to calm himself, and of course, she took notice of that.

Her response was to toss her head and turn her nose up in the air.

Making himself focus, Alejandro turned his gaze back towards Chris and Blainely, who were having their pre-on air argument. They were snapping and hissing at each other like cobras, but Chris seemed a bit more on edge today than usual. Out of the corner of his eye, he noticed Jose watching as the frazzled intern walked on set.

Jose intercepted the intern, taking the coffee out of her hand and crooking a finger under her chin. He led her away off the set and Alejandro narrowed his eyes. Lightly, he tapped Heather on the shoulder.

"I'll be back," he whispered.

"You better be!" she snapped as he scrambled to his feet.

Stealthily, Alejandro snuck behind the bleachers where all of the other contestants were sitting and saw Jose leading the intern to the farthest and most deserted corner of the huge warehouse. Getting down on all fours, Alejandro took cover behind a crumpled up pile of discarded tarps. He peered over the top and cocked his ear, listening intently to catch what Jose was saying to the intern.

"...I don't know what happened," the intern told Jose, who was pretending to listen.

"I'll make sure Chris and Blainely do something about this!" Jose promised her, holding her hand.

She pulled her hand away and narrowed her eyes at him. "Nobody'll do anything just because something happened to an intern," she said bitterly. "I'll be dead before the third episode...That'll just make the show's ratings skyrocket!"

Earnestly, Jose reached out and cupped her chin, turning her face towards him. "I won't let that happen."

"Why do you care?" she cried, blushing and frustrated.

"Because you're beautiful and I want to get to know you," he replied in a silky smooth voice.

When he tried to lean in for a kiss, she pulled away and held her hands up. Then she looked at him with wide eyes, shaking her head. "You're attractive, but I saw you kissing Rio! Womanizers aren't my type, bucko. I'm flattered, but-"

Jose advanced on her, lightly taking her wrist in his hand. "You called me attractive, so you can't deny that you're interested...?"

"Oh, God...Back off!" She yanked her hand away, snatched Blainely's coffee and started marching away with an angry lilt to her steps.

Jose stood there smirking as she walked off.

After watching that, Alejandro rolled his eyes. It was obvious that Jose was trying to get the intern to want to exact revenge on the hosts for treating her like a pile of crap, have a behind-the-scenes ally. Being a shameless flirt himself, he knew that eventually the intern was going to fold and concede to Jose's flirtations. It was only a matter of time.

"I know you're there Al," Jose sneered. "Come on out."

Alejandro stood up, not surprised that Jose had discovered his hiding place. Folding his arms, he walked up to his older brother and glared up at him.

"That was pretty pathetic, Jose," Alejandro told him in a snarky tone of voice.

Jose groaned. "She was looking at me like I'm a movie star," he bragged. "She's just lying to herself-"

"Shut up." Alejandro was starting to get incredibly annoyed by Jose. It didn't really take much.

"¿Qué?"

"You heard me."

Alejandro raised an eyebrow and Jose just scowled back. "I'm kicking your ass at the challenge again today," Jose growled.

When Jose started walking away, Alejandro could see the curve in his back, the way he clenched his fists. Something about his stance notified Alejandro how hard it was for Jose to suppress his desire to tussle with his younger brother. Smiling a little, Alejandro knew he was burning with his attempts to quell that same particular urge.

"No," he whispered savagely, shooting a glare at Jose's back. "_I'm_ kicking your _ass_."

:Episode 2:

"Okay!" Blainely's voice was high and airy. "Today's challenge. I'll be passing out note cards to each couple and the name of the person on the note card's going to cook a meal for their partner." She looked over warily at Chris. The fact that she had to do the challenge, too, was enough to quell her bubbly wit. "There's a row of kitchens behind you." She pointed to several mahogany wood doors. "All of them are fully stocked with just about anything and everything you could possibly need."

"That sounds pretty easy!" Tyler said with a sigh of relief, Lindsay nodding and smiling hopefully next to him.

"There _has_ to be some kind of catch!" Harold protested, popping Tyler's bubble. "Last time it was piranhas, sharks, and a guillotine...What now?"

This was where Chris cut in, a smirk on his face. "That's exactly the catch, Harold. You won't know until you _look_."

Harold frowned and next to him LaShawna wore the same uneasy expression.

:Confessional-Harold:

Harold adjusted his glasses and then looked at the camera's lens, a serious look and a frown on his face. "I've been through three seasons of this show and, as a tip to future players, always be on your guard," Harold said seriously. "You have to be extremely careful in who you choose to trust and when the host is illusive to what obstacles are going to be in the challenges...be extremely wary then, too."

Leaning back, Harold sighed and shook his head. "I can't really cook all that well, but I seriously hope it's me who ends up in the kitchen and _not _my sweet LaShawna!"

:End Confessional:

"And that's not all...I can pretty much guarantee you'll be screwed if you can't cook! In order to win the challenge, you have to eat _all _of the food on your plate!" Chris finished off, his smirk growing. His smirk faded as soon as he saw the look on Blainely's face. Then shivers started racing down his spine as he looked at the door closest to them. Challenges were a lot more fun when he didn't have to personally participate in them...

Owen looked especially ecstatic, rubbing his hands together and looking over at Izzy with wide, eager eyes. "This one's in the bag!"

Izzy smiled and nodded her head in eager agreement.

Chef hovered from his spot near the door to the warehouse and handed Blainely a stack of notecards. Frowning, she looked at them and started handing them out. Cody turned white while Sierra smiled a too-wide smile when they discovered she was the one cooking. Duncan raised an eyebrow and Gwen just shrugged; Duncan was the one cooking. Bridgette looked relieved and Geoff just had a blank face; their notecard had Bridgette's name on it. LaShawna was the one cooking for her and Harold and the thought made Harold blanch almost instantly. Surprisingly, Owen was the designated cook for him and Izzy. A mute look of worry crossed his face and he shot a glance at Izzy, but she was too absorbed in playing with her pet piranha to really notice.

:Confessional-Owen:

Owen twiddled his fingers and looked up at the camera lens. There were several seconds of silence and he blinked several times, looking around the white and blue bathroom stall.

"This might come off as a surprise...but I can't cook!" Owen cried, running his hands through his hair. "I'm more focused on eating! I can tell you what's in a dish. I can even describe the texture, flavor, taste of the food, but I can't make it."

He bowed his head and managed a lingering, straggling fart. A cloud of green sailed up behind him before the confessional cut off in a shower of static.

:End Confessional:

Lindsay scratched her head and as did Tyler when they saw her name scribbled on the note card; Jose smirked superiorly and Rio shared that smirk when they found his name on the note card.

Blainely was clacking over to Alejandro and Heather. While Heather maintained a level calm, Alejandro was just feigning it. The side of Blainely's mouth quipped up a little when she handed Heather their note card. Out of the corner of his eye, Alejandro could see Jose smirking and waving at him. When he saw the name scribbled on the note card, he felt his stomach drop. It was exactly what he'd been fearing since the note card element of the challenge had been announced.

:Confessional-Alejandro:

Alejandro looked directly at the camera lens, blinked and then frowned.

"Heather has the complete upper hand here!" he cried. "If she makes something extremely gross..." His face turned a shade of green. "I have to eat it or else we'll lose the challenge! _Mierda_!"

Another second passed and then Alejandro tipped over and wretched. When he came back up, one of his eyes were twitching and he still looked sick to his stomach.

:End Confessional:

:Confessional-Jose:

Jose grinned at the screen, trying to suppress chuckles.

"Alejandro looks like he's going to blow!" he cackled. "The look on his face...absolutely priceless!"

Smirking, Jose held up a picture to the camera lens of Alejandro scrunching up his face in distaste, one of his eyes twitching.

Still snickering, Jose said, "That's the Burromuerto Christmas card this year!"

:End Confessional:

All of the other contestants were talking to each other. Only Jose had already entered the kitchen nearest him and Rio leaned against the wall next to it, casually checking out her nails as she waited.

Heather looked at Alejandro and frowned. "I know you're a picky eater, Alejandro."

There was an edge to her voice that irritated him. "I _am not_."

"Just tell me something you'll actually eat and I'll make it, okay? I'm a perfectly capable cook," Heather told him, her tone half-bragging, half-bargaining.

Some nagging part of Alejandro doubted her cooking skills and what he really wanted to do was wipe the smug look off her face, but instead he complied. He leaned forward and whispered something in her ear and she nodded. Once he backed away, she went right into the kitchen and Alejandro felt his heart sink to his shoes as soon as the door closed with a soft _click_.

Several minutes passed and Alejandro's unease grew as he looked up at the ceiling. Everything in the warehouse was fairly bland and uninteresting. The camera crew looked bored as they lazily slapped cards in each other's direction and other activities. He cringed inwardly when he saw one of the interns picking their nose.

Blainely looked fairly distraught as she waited outside her own kitchen. There was faint cursing and the banging of pots and pans on the other side of the door, each sound raising Blainely's nerves more and more. Looking away from her, Alejandro felt a very faint twinge of pity; he could definitely relate to her unease. Though as he continued to stand there, he didn't hear any sounds of frustration or fury on the other side of the door.

If he listened hard enough he heard footsteps...and humming? It couldn't be Heather in there if there was humming. Curiosity piqued, Alejandro reached out for the door's brass door knob and looked over his shoulder. Others were opening the doors and looking in, checking up on their partners. Nobody really seemed interested in looking his direction, so he shrugged and turned his attention back to the door to the kitchen Heather was in.

Silently, he opened the door a little and peered in. Heather had successfully found a bunch of ingredients and was warily picking at cabinet drawers. One of the cabinet drawers she opened, her eyes widened and she quickly slammed it shut. There was a series of faint snarls and scratching noises, but Heather slammed her fist into the drawer and the noises quickly subsided. She went back to humming and arranging the ingredients she had a few seconds later.

With another shrug, Alejandro pulled the door closed and wondered what had been hiding in the drawer...

Suddenly, the door to Owen's and Izzy's kitchen flew open. Owen stumbled out, screaming and yelping as a small, furry creature raced around his head. Delighted, Izzy reached out, flexing her fingers back and forth, making a series of moans and cat meows at the creature. Finally, with a huge cloud of green stink streaming behind it, the creature recoiled from Owen and dismounted to the floor below. The skunk skittered off, flicking its bushy tail and Izzy eagerly chased after it, still making strange noises.

A strong, terrible smell filled the air and everybody was pinching their noses, fanning at the smell. Rio and Gwen went into their kitchens, slamming the doors behind them.

Cody fainted, Geoff was clutching at his throat and gagging.

Unable to bare it a moment longer, Alejandro sailed into the kitchen behind him and slammed the door shut behind him, grabbing the door in a vice-like grip and bracing himself against it. He took several big, deep breaths, sinking to the checkered linoleum floor in absolute relief. The door was successfully barricading the pungent and terrible stench of the skunk.

Next thing he knew, Alejandro found himself looking up at Heather, who had her hair tied back and was wearing a long white apron, an eyebrow raised. "What's going on?"

"Owen found a skunk in his kitchen," Alejandro replied casually. When she continued looking at him, he raised his hand and let out a long breath. "I'm not going back out there."

"You can help me cook, then," Heather replied, picking up a wooden spoon and slapping it into his palm.

A thick buzzing sound filled the room and the two of them looked up, surprised and startled. There was an intercom attached to the wall.

"You're all stuck in the kitchens until I can call in a fumigation squad," Chris' voice crackled over the intercom. "You can continue with the challenge, but I wouldn't do that if I were you. Until the skunk smell is cleared, you won't want to go out there...Trust me on that. And Owen? You and Izzy are disqualified from the challenge!"

When the intercom crackled off, Alejandro and Heather looked at each other. Heather walked back to the counter and started picking up ingredients again. Her ponytail whipping her back, she shot a look at Alejandro. "Help me," she demanded.

"But you were doing such a good job by yourself," Alejandro replied, smirking.

"Come on," Heather snapped. "I found all of the ingredients, so we don't have to risk digging through the cabinets."

"Now that I'm in here, I'll bet you want to, though," Alejandro replied acidly.

He walked over to stand next to her, watching as she started dumping things into a long metal pan. She ignored him as she worked methodically and he just ignored her back, feeling his insides twisting and burning. Being so close to her and almost alone was almost too much for him. Once again, he found himself caught between intense hatred and intense longing.

The events of the morning burned the backs of his eyelids. He noticed the slight slump in Heather's shoulders and realized that she was probably fighting the same feelings inside. She wasn't as happy as she had been by herself in the kitchen a few minutes before. But she'd been alone before.

Her face creased by a frown, she turned to face him again, beckoning him over. Reluctantly, he walked over to join her and she pointed at a wooden cutting board and a long knife.

"I need you to chop that onion," she instructed in a voice as sharp as icicles.

"Do you give all of your ex-boyfriends this kind of attitude?" Alejandro snapped bitterly as he picked up the knife.

"We never were going out technically," Heather replied, just as bitterly.

"You're acknowledging that we were even a couple?" Alejandro put mock surprise in his tone.

Heather's shoulders tensed. "Just cut up the damn onion!"

Expertly, Alejandro seized the side of the cutting board and attacked the onion with several quick and precise cuts. Once he was done, he placed the knife aside and looked at the thin slices of the onion, his eyes stinging slightly with tears from cutting it. Frowning, he leered at Heather.

"There you go," he spat, venom edging his tone. "An onion cut up as expertly as _you _cut up my heart..."


	6. 6: Cooking Chaos

6: Cooking Chaos

Renard walked into the motel room, pulling the ponytail out of his hair. He shook his hair out as he walked into the living room, rolling his eyes when he noticed that the TV channel was set to some reality sitcom on MTV. Settled into a brown leather armchair nearby was Renard's "house guest", an intern that had faced an unfortunate fate during TDWT when he'd been eaten alive by ravenous scarabs in Egypt. The intern seemed to be focused on the TV, smiling.

Silently, Renard seated himself in the brown leather chair next to the intern and crossed his legs.

"Troy," he addressed him. "Nobody's seen you, have they?"

Troy picked up the remote with his skeletal hand and switched off the TV. Then he shot Renard a look of utter disdain, or as close he could get considering that he was just a walking, re-animated skeleton wearing a baggy white T-shirt and blue jeans.

"Do you really think I'd _want _to be seen, Doc?" he cried.

"We can't be too careful," Renard replied in a calm, even tone of voice. "I'm not quite ready to unveil your presence yet."

Troy folded his hands and sighed. "I appreciate you bringin' me back to life and all, but-"

"We've been over this already," Renard cut in sharply, his gray eyes flashing like steel. "I'm trying my best, Troy. Besides, our agreement was that you stay a skeleton long enough to help me exact my revenge plans. Plus, I let you watch that reality television garbage. Be patient."

Troy folded his arms. "I don't really like the thought of bein' a robot..."

"You'd be a robot with an organic outer shell," Renard replied, his patience beginning to slip. "I've worked my damnedest to convince the aliens to help me build _that _for you, Troy. Instead of complaining, you should be grateful and follow my instructions."

"Sorry, Doc." Troy still looked resentful. "It's just..." He raised his fingers and flexed them, the joints clicking. "I miss being..._human_."

Leaning back on the couch, Renard raised his eyebrows thoughtfully. Another poor soul spited by the evil Chris. Part of Renard really reached out and sympathized with Troy; he couldn't imagine being a walking skeleton. When he'd first become a cyborg, it'd taken him awhile to get used to part of his heart being a softly ticking clock and the sounds of gears and cogs turning in place of a drum-like heart beat. Troy didn't even have _that_.

"It's the best I can do," Renard said in a sad voice. "I'll try to make the shell as human as I can."

"Thanks Doc," Troy said, actually sounding grateful. "Btw, did you get that intern chick turned into a vampire?"

"Yes," Renard said with a smile. "It was easier than I expected it'd be..."

"Cool."

Troy turned away from him and flicked the TV back on, tuning into reality television again, like many other kids his age would.

Renard had payed off a local vampire in town to turn the most current Total Drama intern into a vampire. That guaranteed that she'd have ample ability to inadvertently help him get revenge on Chris. Blainely seemed to be her most likely first target, but Renard was sure that she'd make a beeline for Chris, too, since he seemed to be a bit too attached to Blainely, lately; new vampires had a huge thirst and would go to crazy extremes to quench it. This would happen in a few days. Just a little bit longer with the patience game before he could directly strike.

Thoughtfully, Renard smiled and steepled his fingers. So far, his plan was successfully falling into place, but there was one thing standing in the way of his plan being all around successful and he had to work quickly to avoid it being a problem. That one obstacle was..._Heather_. The raven haired young woman that seemed to have Alejandro wrapped around her pinky finger.

:Episode 2-Continued:

Jose whipped out the plate filled with churros. Compared to the nasty smell of the skunk, Rio's nostrils were teased and tempted. She groaned, her knees wobbling crazily as drool collected around her lips. Quickly, she got a hold of herself, refusing to let Jose see her going weak and flimsy at his cooking. That would just stroke his already too-big ego-not that Rio had any room to talk-but they already had a fairly feeble alliance going.

"Did you see the look on Al's face?" Jose mentioned for the millionth time, still chuckling gleefully.

"Yes..." Rio sneered. "It's not _that _funny!"

"This from the girl who spent a half hour watching a couple break up on a reality show and laughed at it for two hours straight. As if you're so high and mighty, _Eris_."

He spat the goddess' name with mocking sarcasm in his voice, making Rio's temper flare. Feeling her insides churning, she flew at Jose and tackled him to the floor, her ponytail coming undone. She leaned in until her face was hovering only inches above his.

"Don't you dare mock my name!" Rio shrieked at him. "You have no clue who you're dealing with, you pathetic mortal!"

Her threat just whooshed right over his head. Usually, he just regarded her with polite indifference, but now he was staring up at her blankly, not saying anything.

Pursing her lips, Rio cupped his chin in her hand. "You're lucky that I fancy the cut of your jib."

She climbed up off of him and smoothed her skirt, leaning against the counter. The smell of the churros tantalized her again and Rio looked longingly at them. Much to her distaste, a bead of drool dribbled out of her mouth and down her chin; she could feel Jose's eyes scrutinizing her like the aim of a laser. Next thing she knew, the tip of a churro was being pressed against her lips.

"I like the cut of your jib, too," Jose replied, chuckling as she bit into the churro.

Rio just glared silently at him as she chewed on the bit of churro, imagining frying Jose to a charred pile of ashes with a lightning bolt and several other unpleasant scenarios. But overall she continued biting off the churro while Jose held it up to her and smirked like a circus clown.

"Well...it's something."

Duncan held out the plate to Gwen. It was a simple piece of toast...smoking and black. Gingerly, she took the plate from Duncan and eyed the toast, trying not to flinch. If she'd been cooking and had been lucky with rummaging in the drawers, she would've made Grilled cheese; sometimes, she really prided herself on her ability to make that. With a shrug, Gwen smiled at him.

"I wasn't expecting gourmet, anyway," she said.

"Good...'cause you got an fed up piece of toast, instead. _Bon appetit_!" Duncan pretended to bow and then they both laughed.

"I've had to eat much worse than a bad piece of toast on the show, anyway," Gwen said with another shrug.

She was surprised when Duncan suddenly took the plate away from her and put it on a nearby counter top.

"Don't I deserve _something_ for battling off that squirrel, even it was for a crappy piece of toast?"

They both looked at the squirrel sitting grumpily on a nearby counter top, his tiny arm in a sling. When it noticed Duncan, it started shaking a fist and chattering angrily, hopping up and down for further emphasis. That just made Duncan smile.

"He's cussing up a storm in Squirrel-ese!" Gwen said, chuckling.

Duncan chuckled, too, as he turned back to face her. Without any beforehand hints or cues, he wrapped his arms around Gwen and pulled her towards him. Their noses were touching and Gwen found herself staring directly into Duncan's blue eyes. The next moment, he pulled her closer and they were kissing.

He was aggressive and passionate, bold and forward. That was especially what Gwen liked about making out with him.

Barely thirty seconds in, he pushed her to the floor and the make-out session started becoming intense; Gwen groaned.

As the couple rolled around on the floor, the disgruntled squirrel ambled across the counter top, muttering to itself. It reached the counter top where the piece of burnt toast was and stared at Duncan with blazing, angry eyes.

"_Revolucion_!" the squirrel declared in a high, squeaky voice. Then it commenced nibbling on the piece of toast with vigor, determined to exact revenge!

Blainely grimaced and just stood still, absolutely dumbstruck.

Screaming and running around the room, Chris was locked in a struggle with a furious raccoon. The raccoon kept yelping and scratching at Chris' face with its short claws and Chris cursed, over and over again, as he vainly tried to pry the thing off of his face.

The spat continued for another minute, the raccoon the obvious victor, until the raccoon got bored and jumped off, scampering away to another corner of the room. Chris pulled a mirror out of his pants pocket, looked at himself, and then screamed. Gingerly, he reached up and ran a hand through his messy hair, touched the red scratch marks covering his face now.

Feeling a pang of pity, Blainely stalked across the room towards Chris. On closer inspection, he looked absolutely terrible. Some chunks of his hair were missing, there were so many scratches on his face and some of them were bleeding. There was a bruise above his eyebrow. With uncharacteristic sympathy, Blainely reached up and started patting idly at Chris hair, trying to cover up the grotesquely bald spots.

"W-what are you doing?" Chris asked her when he noticed what she was doing.

"If there's anything I've ever admired about you and would-grudgingly-admit...it's that you have gorgeous hair, Chris," she replied. "It'd be a shame for the world to see your hair like this..."

"Did you just...compliment my hair?"

He lowered the mirror and she stopped fussing with his hair for a minute. They stared at each other. The facial expression Chris wore perfectly mirrored exactly how confused Blainely was.

"It's never going to happen again," Blainely quipped, folding her arms. "This is a one time thing. I can't stand you...you narcissistic, terrible, unfashionable bastard."

"If you're expecting a compliment back from me, you're not getting it," Chris shot back haughtily. "And you're being a hypocritical calling _me _narcissistic! I've seen how many times a day you preen yourself. You're a bitchy, whiny, manipulative, ugly diva!"

Blainely looked at him with wide, unbelieving eyes.

"You son of a bitch!" she growled. "_This _is the kind of treatment I get when I actually _try _to be nice to you? I'm a much better host than you anyway."

For emphasis, she turned away from him and pursed her lips. "Your cooking sucks, too."

She pointed at the steaming black unidentifiable pile sitting on a plastic plate a few feet away. Chris gritted and gnashed his teeth, steam curtailing out of his ears as his anger escalated. Then he subsided from it and smiled as a realization came to him. He leaned back and smiled smugly.

"You have to eat it, you know that?" His tone was biting.

Warily, Blainely turned back to look at him. She bit her lip and started gaping like a fish, knowing that he had the upper hand here. His smirk growing, Chris picked up the plate and waved it under Blainely's nose. Her face turned green and then she fell back in a faint.

Victorious, Chris pumped his fist. "That's one for me, _Mildred_," he crowed, his words acidic.

Before he could fully celebrate, he turned and saw the raccoon looking up at him with inquisitive beady eyes. Fear sparking up like fireworks, Chris took a few steps back, holding his hands up and willing the creature to stay there. For a second, it looked like it was going to do just that...

Then the raccoon smirked, snapping out its claws again.

Heather blatantly ignored Alejandro, her back turned towards him. Even though the room temperature was okay, she could still feel the icy silence in the room as if a huge lead weight was pressing down on her shoulders. Looking at the shining metal pot in front of her, she watched the bubbles float up and pop on the water's surface in the pot as the water boiled. Underneath the pot, a blue flame crackled.

To her dismay, Heather could still hear Alejandro's words ominously echoing in her head. She grimaced, shooting a look at the onion Al had cut up. Then she turned away, gritting her teeth. When she squeezed her eyes shut, she could see Al looking at her with flames leaping in his eyes, holding out his hand with a beating, gushing heart in-

She wrenched her eyelids open, forcing the grotesque mental image to go away.

After awhile, Heather made the rest of the dish on auto-pilot. Once she was finished, she was still seething with rage and jittery with nerves. Even the pleasant smell wafting up off of the food didn't help. Slamming the tray with the food on it down, she whirled to face Alejandro, untying her apron as she did so. She flung the apron to the ground and stomped up to him, her eyes a pair of slits as she returned his glare. When she was only inches away, he turned away from her.

With a groan, Heather grabbed his arm and roughly spun him back around to face her.

"You would've done something similar!" she yelled at him. "You can't put the TDWT thing aside for _one_ freaking minute, can you?"

Alejandro stared at her coldly, one of his eyes twitching.

"You took every open opportunity to back stab me, Heather," he said. "Even when I tried to form an alliance with you, you continued to turn me down-"

"Have you noticed that you're freaking _perfect _at _everything_?" Heather yelled, the words running out of her mouth without her thinking them through. "I knew I had no chance against you in a fair fight!"

Once she stopped speaking, she could feel her heart slamming against her rib cage and she was breathing heavily. For a long, silent minute he just stared at her with his cold, calculating eyes. The silence dragged on for an eternity and she knew he was going to say something, and she was getting impatient waiting for him to say it. When she was about to prompt him to say something, he said:

"We both know that's a load of bull shit."

Heather looked up at him with wide, confused eyes. "...What?"

"As soon as I knew what _you _were capable of, Heather, I saw you as a threat," Alejandro replied in an even, level voice. "You were the only one I ever considered a challenge. You were right when asking for a fair fight...I wanted to give you at least that much since you earned my respect as a rival. Then you went and wrecked everything. You didn't even stop to think."

Furrowing her brows, Heather looked up at him, an exasperated expression on her face. "I might be underhanded, but I'm not as underhanded as _you_..."

"Heather..." Alejandro sighed heavily, looking away.

"Alejandro..." Heather pulled her hair out of the ponytail. "If we're going to win this...I hate to say it, but we _need_ to resolve this."

Frowning, he returned his gaze to her and she looked up at him determinedly. Her heart was still pounding rapidly in her chest. Looking up at him, she remorsefully remembered the brief kiss they'd shared that morning and felt an overwhelming urge to kiss him again. So badly she wanted to hug him, something. Just _something_.

"You really did break my heart," Alejandro told her bitterly. "I was telling the truth when I...said what I said. On top of that, I didn't win the million-"

"I lost my million, too, Alejandro!" Heather cried. "To Ezekiel the freaking _zombie_. Plus, I almost got flattened by a frigging meteor and had to walk on crutches for three months! Don't feed me sob stories, Alejandro. I'm here to win three million freaking dollars. Are you in or not?"

"Three million is-" Alejandro cut off from what he was saying. His pupils grew to the size of bowling balls.

Utterly confused, Heather watched as he walked around her, as if in a trance, making a beeline towards the food. She watched as he leaned towards it and took a long whiff, sighing contentedly and standing back up, clasping his hands. The huge smile that crawled onto his face majorly creeped Heather out, making her wonder what had gotten into him.

"Alejandro?" She walked up to him and then started waving a hand in front of his face. "_Alejandro?_"

"The food smells perfect," he murmured. "Absolutely perfect. It reminds me of home. Whenever I got upset as a little boy, Mama used to make _arroz _all the time! Mmm..."

The big smile was still on Alejandro's face. He closed his eyes and things became even weirder when he lunged at Heather and swept her up into a gentle embrace, pressing his cheek against hers. For a second, Heather wasn't sure what was going on, but after a minute of him holding her in his arms and not recoiling or pulling away, she felt her heart melt in her chest.

Tentatively, she wrapped her arms around him and buried her head in his chest, smiling as a flurry of unexpected warm and fuzzies washed over her in a tidal wave. It was a pleasant feeling, a happiness she hadn't experienced in a long time. For a minute, she could hear the throb of Al's heart and she was surprised to hear it beating as rapidly as her own.

"Oh, Alejandro...!" she cried, snuggling against him.

Suddenly, the perfection of the moment split and cracked like broken glass. Alejandro wrenched himself away from Heather and pushed her away. Shocked and startled, Heather looked at him. He looked at her, his expression mirroring hers. Quickly, he regained his composure, running a hand through his long hair and clearing his throat.

Looking at him, Heather was surprised by how much she wanted to be back in his arms again. To keep herself from lunging at him, she hugged herself, tightly gripping her elbows and looking away from him.

Before either one could react any further, the intercom buzzed.

"Skunk's gone," Chef announced curtly. "You all can come out now."

Heather watched as Alejandro cautiously padded over to the door, opened it a few inches, then sniffed. A second later, he just walked out, leaving the door hanging open; Heather walked out and saw him standing a good five feet away, purposefully looking away from her. Knowing that he was consciously ignoring her sent a small pang through Heather, but she could still feel the awkwardness hanging on the air. With a small sigh, she retreated back into the kitchen and picked up the tray of Spanish rice that had evoked such a peculiar reaction from Alejandro.

As she carried it back out, the smell penetrated her nostrils and she knew if she ever smelled it again, she'd correlate it with Al's embrace.

Chef stood at the other side of the room, waving off two men in yellow Hazmat suits; they carried a small cage with the skunk inside, chittering and scratching at the bars. He straightened his posture and strode towards the line of doors, picking up a pile of folding tables and chairs as he passed. Whistling, he set up several tables and chairs. Once all the tables were set up, several people stumbled out of kitchens bearing their dishes and set them down.

Outside the door to his kitchen, Owen was trapped inside a transparent, odor-blocking bubble looking absolutely miserable. Izzy was crawling on top of the bubble, pretending to be a fish while Bitey looked up at her with beady and irritated eyes.

As soon as Chris appeared, Heather was having difficulty suppressing snickers and she wasn't the only one. Sierra fell to the floor laughing, Cody limp in her arms as he laughed, too. Mortified, Chris ran a hand through what was left of his hair, his cheeks turning scarlet. He carried a plate filled with a lump of food that looked like a steaming pile of crap.

"Blainely fainted," Chris said, looking at Chef, his eyes crinkling.

"You have to eat it, then," Chef replied with a casual shrug.

Chris' eyes widened and Heather snickered even more. After making the contestants eat everything from crickets to dolphin to other weird things, it was nice to see him have to endure similar torture. And it was his own cooking of all things. Who knew that Chris was such a horrible cook his food looked just as unappealing as any of the disgusting things the contestants had been forced to eat?

"I...I can't eat that!" Chris looked horrified, curling his lip like a petulant child.

"After last episode, remember what the producers said?" Chef shrugged again, actually looking sympathetic. "You'll be fired if you don't."

Heather's eyes widened. This was rich, absolutely terrific!

Chris' lip trembled. He looked over at the other contestants and cleared his throat. "Okay, the person that didn't cook has to eat the food. _All _of the food-"

"One problem..."

Duncan and Gwen stepped forward, Duncan holding out an empty plate filled with black crumbs. A squirrel poked out of the door behind them, laughing and pumping its tiny fist in victory. A sudden smile fluttered onto Chris' face as an idea occurred to him.

Heather's heart sank in disappointment as she watched Chris stalked towards Duncan, his smile growing. He placed the plate down in front of Duncan and Gwen and winked. Gwen was already pale, but she seemed to turn a lighter shade as soon as she saw the lump of food.

"I have to eat that?"

Silently, Chris nodded, narrowing his eyes at her.

Taking a deep breath, Gwen closed her eyes. When she opened them again, she clenched her fists and looked at Chris, determined. "I'll do it! I've had to do much worse than this...so I'm game!"

"That's my girl!" Duncan smiled, placing a supportive hand on her shoulder.

Over by Sierra, Cody gasped and blushed. He looked at Gwen with shining, admiring eyes. That made Heather roll her eyes. After so long, he was _still _hopelessly in love with that Goth chick. It was kind of pathetic...

:Confessional-Cody:

For a couple of seconds, Cody blinked and looked like he was floating off in space. After a long, breezy sigh, he looked at the camera and raised his eyebrows.

"What a woman!" he declared. "Every time I see Gwen, she gets more and _more _amazing! If she ever breaks up with Duncan, I _want _that chick." Grinning, Cody growled like a cat.

:End Confessional:

"And once you're done...The_ intern _will inspecting your plates _and _cleaning up the mess. Any barf, crumbs, or otherwise...you're disqualified!" Chris motioned the baffled intern over and she looked sheepish, blinking as she tried to pull the collar of her T-shirt up to cover her neck.

Kate gave a cursory look to some of the dishes and her cheeks flushed momentarily when her eyes rested on the dish that Geoff and Bridgette had: a heaping pile of mashed potatoes covered with slick brown gravy. A tiny squeak rose up in her throat and she took a step back.

"I...I have to clean it up?" Kate looked terrified.

"Yup!"

Kate gritted her teeth and pulled at her shirt, wandering away from the camera's view.

"Okay...begin!" Chris motioned with his hand.

Heather watched as Alejandro wandered towards the table. He was barely seated before he vigorously attacked the food. Several times, he groaned in pleasure like Owen would at an all-you-can-eat buffet. It kind of touched Heather's heart to see Al enjoying her food so much. When he was done, he started picking at leftover bits of food, even licked his fingers. The tray was completely empty.

It was strange to see him lean back in the chair, that strange smile slithering onto his face again. Smiling herself, Heather wandered over to stand beside the table, folding her arms and shooting a triumphant look at him.

"See? Told you I was a good cook," Heather bragged.

Before he could respond, there was a loud retching sound. Heather's head whipped in the direction of the sound and it turned out to be Tyler, keeling over and retching up all over the floor. Left behind was a huge, disgusting pile of green and indistinguishable chunks. Standing next to him, Lindsay looked like she was about to barf as well. On Tyler's plate was what looked like half-eaten eggs and bacon.

"Sorry Linds," said Tyler, looking up at her with knitted brows. "I ate too many pancakes this morning..."

"It's okay," Lindsay said, patting his shoulder.

Heather tilted her head slightly and smiled, a bit touched. That was when Chris marched up to them, pointing a finger and bellowing: "You're disqualified!"

"It's much better when Donald Trump does it," Tyler informed him as he stood up.

Chris shot him a venomous look before beckoning the intern over. She had a sick green tint to her as she ambled over. "Okay..._Intern_?"

Kate walked up to the first table where Harold and LaShawna were. After looking at the tray, the table top, and under the table, Kate came up and answered their expectant looks with a thumbs up. Then she headed to the next table where Cody and Sierra were. Cody's plate had half of what looked like a gingerbread man version of himself on the plate. With Sierra's gaze blazing at him, Cody stuffed the rest of the cookie into his mouth, chewed quickly and then swallowed. Then he looked up sheepishly at Kate and grinned.

"You're good," Kate told him with a short nod.

Cody smiled gratefully and Sierra squealed, clapping her hands in delight.

The nervous anxiety Kate was dripping with was at its highest point when she approached Geoff's table. She looked around carefully, twice, three times, more cautiously than she had with the other tables. The strange reaction had Geoff looking at her with a confused expression.

"Something wrong, bra?" he asked.

"N-no, no!" Kate stammered, shaking her head. "You're fine."

Before he or Bridgette could make any further inquiries, she stomped towards Jose's and Rio's table. Rio leaned back, looking up at her with a radiant smile as she precariously tipped back in her chair. Behind Kate, Owen was whimpering piteously and weeping silently inside his big sphere. The sounds gripped Kate's heart and she momentarily turned away from Jose and Rio.

"What's wrong, Owen?" she asked, looking concerned.

"I'm hungry!" Owen whined.

Before Kate could reply, she felt a tug on the back of her shirt. Miffed, she turned and saw Rio waving at her and smiling innocently. Stomping, Kate did her routine and then threw up her hands in exasperation. "You get a gold star! Nice job," she said, her voice dripping with sarcasm.

Watching her, Heather smirked a little. It was nice to see that somebody else wasn't too fond of Jose and Rio either. Kate talked in hushed tones to Owen, then spun around and marched over to Heather's and Alejandro's table. The unusual smile was _still _plastered to Al's face and he was looking up at Heather with shimmering eyes; Heather was totally oblivious. Biting her lip, Kate pointed at Al.

"Is he okay...?"

Heather turned to look at Al and he looked away from her, making a point out of picking a piece of lint off his shirt. Shrugging, Kate looked briefly and then nodded at Heather, before turning on her heel and walking away.

:Confessional-Kate:

Kate shifted awkwardly and her eyes darted around. Then she looked directly at the camera, unknowingly pulling at her shirt near her neck.

"I know I shouldn't be doing this, but...You may as well know. I have an intense hatred for mashed potatoes, okay?" She looked away, biting her lip. Then she looked back up. "Another thing...what's up with Alejandro and Heather? I don't normally take notice of stuff like that, but I seriously don't get it. One minute they're fighting, the next they're making googly eyes? What the hell?"

She shook her head. "No wonder I've never watched this stupid show..."

:End Confessional:

Chris smiled mischievously. "The groups that were disqualified?"

All of the disqualified contestants looked up.

"There's no voting off this season," Chris said bluntly. "In the next episode, all of you are going to be competing in another challenge. Whoever loses the challenge is gone!"

"What's the challenge?" Tyler asked, frowning.

"It's a surprise," Chris replied with a low chortle.

:End of Episode 2:

The earlier awkwardness still hadn't faded. Hesitating outside her room door, Heather looked at Alejandro, but he wasn't looking back at her. He just turned the door knob, ignoring her.

Feeling a spike of irritation, Heather lashed out, grabbing his wrist and forcing him to look at her.

"Quit ignoring me!" she demanded.

Raising an eyebrow, Alejandro blew out his breath. "Do you want something?" he asked, his voice containing no kind of emotion.

For a long moment, Heather looked up at him silently and could feel her heart starting to pick up in pace of heart beats. Desire washed over her and without thinking, she lunged up at him, wrapping her arms and legs around him and started kissing him. She continued for almost an entire minute, hearing her heart beat filling her ears like the constant throb of a congo drum.

Just as suddenly as it had happened, it ended. Alejandro pushed her away, looking at her with wide, unbelieving eyes. Heather unlatched herself from him and looked at him, breathing hard.

"I don't feel that way about you," Alejandro said simply, turning away from her and walking into his room.

She stood there awkwardly, staring at his door. Then she frantically scrambled into her own room, onto the bed and grabbed her phone. As soon as it was in her hands, it started ringing. Heather jabbed the "Talk" button.

"What the hell were you thinking?" Eva's voice blasted on the other side.

"What?" Heather went instantly on the defensive, still feeling unsteady and weird.

"Hugging _Alejandro_?" Eva sounded berserk, as usual. "He's your rival, Heather! Trust me, a relationship with your rival does not turn out well. I'm telling you as a concerned friend."

"I'm not in love with him!" Heather heard herself shout.

"And I'm Ke$ha," Eva replied sarcastically. "Everybody knows you two were madly in love during World Tour. It's seriously not a good idea to fall for him again, though."

"I know," Heather said. "I'm not.

"Yeah, you are," Eva told her. "I'm just surprised you two haven't kissed on camera already. Get your act together, Heather. You don't need him, remember? Woman power!"

"Woman power..." Heather said feebly, remembering how Eva had pushed her feminist views and encouraged Heather's independence.

Looking at the room door, Heather felt hollow. She definitely wasn't a damsel in distress, but part of her couldn't stand the thought of a world without Alejandro. Somehow, she knew that she was falling for him again and

...she couldn't help herself.


	7. 7: Lycanthropy

7: Lycanthropy

It was the dead of night, pitch black and a sky dotted with tiny white stars. Overhead, a huge white moon blazed with white fire. Hiding in an abandoned bicycle shop, Renard pulled the tarp back up over the windows, drenching the space in shadows again. The room was dimly lit by a small light in the shape of a small old-fashioned lantern.

A pair of ferocious golden eyes leered up out of the shadows. The eyes blinked and there were several low, guttural growls. With a small smile, Renard held up his hand. "Patience, Misty..."

"I can feel the moon calling me!" Misty cried, stepping into what little light there was. Her long blond hair scattered around her face like a series of wild whips and her teeth sprouted in and out as she vainly tried to suppress her transformation. With a long, ethereal howl, Misty fell down to the floor, onto her hands and knees. Misty tried to speak again, but all that came out were several short barks.

"Excellent..." Renard crowed. He dug in his pants pocket and pulled out a discarded purple hair scrunchie, holding it up to Misty. Curiously, Misty sniffed it. As soon as she'd sniffed it to her heart's content, Renard walked over to the door of the bike shop and pushed it open.

Like a flower seeking sunlight, Misty rushed outside, into the full view of the moon. She gleamed like a diamond, snow white fur erupting all over her body, her ears elongating and pressing down onto the sides of her head, her fangs fully coming out. Within seconds, the transformation was complete and Renard leaned against the door frame, smiling satisfactorily with the knowledge of what he knew would happen next.

Overtaken by instinct and a mission, Misty galloped down the road, a beautiful and rippling vision in the moonlight as her tail sashayed behind her. The surrounding buildings passed by in a blur and she quickly approached her destination: the Tierra Inn. The smell of the scrunchie filled her nose and with her extremely keen sense of smell, Misty knew that _this_ was definitely the source of the scent.

She knew she couldn't get in through the front door, but she saw a building right next door that had a sloping roof adjacent to a series of windows on the left side of the Tierra. Following the scent, Misty raced forward and in one giant, graceful leap, she landed on the roof of the building and easily padded towards the source of the scent.

With a low growl, she stopped in front of a small window that was open to let in the night air; she could see a figure lying in a small, uncomfortable bed, thrashing around. With undeniable certainty that this was her target, Misty crept onto the window sill and gracefully swept into the room, glad that she was a more compact werewolf, not one of the ones that was the size of a barn. Instinct and hunger washed over her like a wave as she ambled up towards the bed.

It seemed wrong to attack defenseless and clueless prey, but Misty ignored her human side. Just one more time. Just one more time and she'd have the cure for her lycanthropy. She'd be able to eat chocolate again and taste how sweet it was. Actually be human. Misty's tail twitched as her animal brain screamed at her, but she felt a huge reluctance. Looking at her next victim, Misty flashed through how terrible the experience of being a werewolf was to her: she survived by hunting defenseless bunny rabbits and other small, easy to catch prey, ate other carnivores' leftovers as a scavenger. The worst part of being a werewolf happened at times like right now, under the light of the full moon.

Her victim was only a teenage girl, too. She had long, beautiful black hair and she looked extremely peaceful in her sleep. With a pang, Misty thought of her own young daughter, living with her ex-husband. She hadn't seen her own little girl for about a month now...

Drowning in a sea of depression, Misty let her animal instincts take over. Swiftly, she lunged in and pulled at the teen girl's arm, sinking her long canines into it. A few seconds later, the teen girl was sitting up as straight as a pole, screaming and trying to pull her arm away. Startled and surprised, Misty pulled away and the girl stood up, grabbing the lamp on her end table. Mercilessly, her arm dripping with blood, she started whacking Misty over and over, making Misty groan. Her human side was awaken as soon as she released a long, loud howl and felt a vicious desire to tear the girl to ribbons. Unable to control herself, Misty grabbed the lamp and ferociously shucked it aside, then pinned the girl to the floor with her paws.

The girl looked up at her with wide, scared eyes, looking extremely vulnerable. Before her wolf side could lunge in and do anymore damage, Misty forced herself to recoil, trying desperately to battle with her werewolf half. The battle lasted only a few seconds when the bedroom door snapped open and a tall, muscular teenage boy raced into the room. The girl screamed again and then the boy punched Misty, sending her sliding and bumping into the bed nearby. Misty's nose and maw were already throbbing from being hit by the lamp and now part of her neck was throbbing, too.

To her dismay, Misty felt herself launch into fight or flight mode, adrenaline pumping in her veins. Powerfully, she leaped towards the teen boy and tackled him to the ground, too, biting down ferociously into his left arm. She could hear him cry out-a low and startled sound that sent an endorphin rush through her for some reason. As she pulled back, Misty saw the blood coming out of his arm and was once again fighting with her werewolf side.

"_ALEJANDRO_!" the girl cried out in horror.

Once again Misty was being hit in the side, over and over. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw that she was being hit by the lamp again, the look of rage on the teen girl's face. Her werewolf side's rage flared up again, mixing with the pain throbbing through her, but Misty forced herself to get back to the window and struggled out.

As she took off along the sloping roof, Misty could sense somebody looking out the window after her, hear them yelling. Horrified, she put on a burst of speed and leaped down from the roof, ran down the street. She kept running, feeling the night pushing down on her like a huge lead block.

_I turned them both into werewolves..._Misty thought in utter horror. _Oh God, no...no..._

Feeling terrible, Misty lapsed completely into her lycan instincts. The rest of the night passed in a giant blur, her running towards a thick forest on the edge of town, sating her hunger with a rabbit, restlessly prowling amongst the trees and howling up at the moon. Eventually, she collapsed in a pile of twigs and leaves as the sun started to rise, reverting to her human shape. Depressed and exhausted, Misty fell into the throes of sleep.

Renard stood at the very edge of the forest, his long hair tied back into a pony tail. The sky was drenched in gold, orange, and pink as the sun started to rise. Composing himself, Renard leaned against the trunk of a nearby tree, folding his arms and whistling silently. Nervously, he pulled at the lapels of his coat and fussed with the top of his black turtleneck sweater; he could feel his clockwork heart ticking rapidly with the rising level of his agitation.

Out of all of the phases of his plan, this was probably the toughest one. Yes, he could look into the eyes of a vampire and not flinch, yet this made his knees wobble. Looking down at himself, he realized how much attention he'd paid to his personal appearance, too. Something he normally didn't do.

After five restless minutes, a wispy pink cloud popped up out of nowhere and Renard felt a sick twang of excitement and anxiety rocket through him as he raced towards it.

An extremely attractive woman popped into view. She had long and lustrous bright red hair framing a beautiful face with a sly smile and twinkling emerald green eyes; she looked very young, but she was ageless, practically older than time itself. Yet that, and her immense power were what really enchanted Renard the most about the goddess Aphrodite; he'd always been greatly attracted to powerful and dangerous women. Now that he was a ferocious, practically evil man, he was sure that it'd attract the attention of Aphrodite. Especially after the way he'd heard her talk about Ares, the god of war.

It was an unusual circumstance for a mortal man, even a cyborg with as many supernatural connections as Renard, to be aquainted with a goddess. When he'd been a little boy, Renard had gotten his first major crush on the bully girl in sixth grade, but he'd noticed that her type was older bad boys. Feeling hopeless, Renard had moped in his bedroom for three whole days, pathetically pining for the girl. Pitying him, Aphrodite had decided to help Renard; she'd granted him the favor of having the bully girl fall in love with him. After that, Renard had been blissfully happy, marking the event off as just a bizarre dream and that his love interest had just turned around and decided to give him a chance...

A few years later in middle school, Renard found his love life majorly tanking. He continued to have little to no success getting dates into high school as well. That led to him remembering his first encounter with Aphrodite as a young boy, and by the time he was seventeen, Renard was madly in love with Aphrodite. His affections for the goddess disgusted her and they met up a second time and out of frustration, she made all of the girls at Renard's high school fall in love with him to distract him.

By the time he reached college, Renard regarded himself as somewhat of a ladies' man, but somehow, even though he'd dated quite a bit and gone to prom, he still clung to his memories of Aphrodite. It had been so long since he'd seen her last and he knew he still had a crush on her from the way his hormones seemed to be flaring up like a teenage boy's. He was just glad that Aphrodite had decided to even heed his call.

As he stared at her, she regarded him with a full, seductive smile. "Hello, Theodore."

Renard's cheeks flared red when she addressed him by his first name. He smiled at her slightly and tried to speak, but his throat felt like dry sand paper. Distractedly, he ran a hand through his hair and became hyper aware of the sweat gliding down his neck.

"You're quite handsome," Aphrodite said with another smile, looking him up and down several times. "And I know that you're still in love with me..."

He felt himself blushing even more. "M-miss Aphrodite, I don't wish to waste your time. Thank you for coming to see me. I was wondering if you could grant me a favor?"

Unaware of personal boundaries, she slinked up to him and wrapped her arms around his neck, leaning in until their noses were touching. Her eyes were so close, it made Renard's head spin and clouded his thoughts. "I think I know what you want..." she whispered, licking her lips. "And I'd be _happy _to oblige."

Before he could say anything more, Aphrodite was kissing him; her kiss was indescribable. All of his teenage dreams were coming to life much more vividly than he could ever imagine, setting him on fire. Part of his mind was screaming at him to go ahead with his plan, but he was too absorbed in the kiss and his desire to listen to it. A long minute passed, the seconds passing like long, delicious slices of forever. When Aphrodite pulled away, Renard felt absolutely breathless and a little light headed.

"That...wasn't the favor," he heard himself say.

"You've wanted to kiss me forever!" Aphrodite cried out, appalled. "Aren't you grateful?"

His heart pounding in his ear, Renard sighed. "Of course," he whispered. "You're absolutely amazing...I hate to ask for anything more..."

"Then why are you?" Aphrodite snapped impatiently. "I don't kiss every mortal man, Theodore. It's a high honor for any one of them to get any kind of attention from me, let alone as much as you have!"

Taking a deep breath, Renard looked up directly into her eyes. "I was hoping you could help me exact my revenge plans against Chris McClean," he said steadily. "The thing is, I asked one of the contestants to be my inside man and he's getting distracted. I need him to be absolutely focused and I don't want him to have any incentive to double cross me after giving his word. I already sent a werewolf after his lady to turn her into a lycan, for meddling with my plans-"

"You've really changed," Aphrodite interrupted. "I like it."

Renard found himself smiling wickedly. "And I'm not done yet. I was wondering if you could make Alejandro fall in love with Courtney. If he's in love with her, that gives him more necessity to gain revenge on Chris. I'd be okay with Heather...but I have a feeling she'd side with Chris in the end. I need reliable allies."

Aphrodite frowned, then she pulled away from Renard, tapping her chin and shaking her head. She furrowed her brows and shot a look at Renard. "I can't grant that favor."

Her words dropped like stones. "What..." Renard was falling out of being mesmerized by Aphrodite. His hands balled into fists at his sides. "You're the goddess of love! Why not?"

In reply, she looked at him with a rueful smile. "I'm the one that made Alejandro and Heather fall in love in the first place, Theodore," she said. "There's a reason _why _I'm the goddess of love. I'm in charge of helping people find their soul mates, the one who steers them in the direction of finding true love. The rest is up to whether or not they follow their feelings."

She shrugged and smiled.

"Alejandro and Heather are soul mates," she said simply. "I'm not going to meddle, no matter how fond I might be of you, Theodore. You'll just have to find a way around it."

Renard felt angry. From the look on her face, he could tell that she was telling the truth. With a heavy sigh, he looked down at the ground and stomped a twig with the toe of his boot. After a few seconds, he looked back up at her, his heart beat becoming regular again.

"I'm sorry for bothering you," he said dismally.

"Theodore," she said, reaching out to him. "I'm willing to grant your other request..."

His anger intensified; he'd had to wait so long and now, just because, he fit her absurdly high standards, she was willing to "grant his request." She was only willing because it fed her eternally insatiable romantic desires. With an expression full of venom, he looked up at her and shook his head.

"No thank you," he said in a voice like steel. "And please call me Dr. Renard, not Theodore."

Haughtily, Aphrodite folded her arms across her chest and disappeared in another puff of pink smoke. Once she was gone, he exhaled and fell to his knees, looking over at the sky. Now he had the curse and wrath of a goddess weighing on his back. He was going to have to try his damnedest to successfully exact his revenge plans now.

Soft golden sunlight spilled through the open window. It leaked behind Alejandro's closed eyelids and he groaned, not wanting to wake up; he wanted to sleep longer. For the first time in a long time, he felt extremely happy and peaceful. He was in the place in-between being awake and being asleep. Desperately, he tried to swim back towards the darkness and silence of sleep, but something kept nagging at him. After awhile, he just opened his eyes and woke up.

He found himself staring at the ceiling, a few cracks in the ceiling. Blainely hadn't been kidding about the quality of the rooms that weren't suites. He frowned and snarled at the thought of Jose happily living it up in one of the fancier rooms; he deserved a huge splinter in his toe more than a fancy room.

That was when Alejandro realized he wasn't the only one lying on the bed.

When he looked down, he found his arms wrapped around..._Heather? _She was sleeping peacefully, her hair swirling around her face in a tangled mess. Asleep and quiet, she looked tranquil. Without thinking, he reached up and brushed some of her hair off of her face and behind her ear. A huge surge of warmth and affection washed over him and he couldn't help it when he leaned forward and kissed her forehead. He continued stroking her cheek, trying in vain to ignore the voice in his head howling furiously at him and crackling with anger. Sighing softly, he leaned in closer towards her until their noses were touching, about to close his eyes again. This had to be a dream anyway-

That was when he noticed a line of dry blood near her lips. Alarm flooded through him and his eyes widened. Immediately, he directed his hand from her cheek to her neck and fumbled for her pulse. His alarm was overriden by a sense of utter relief when he felt the steady beating of her pulse under his finger tips. His own heart slowed its sporadic pace to match the calm, even beat of hers.

Something still felt amiss. The calm and peace he'd been feeling mere seconds before shattered like a pane of glass after a rock had been thrown through it. Unnerved, he pulled away from Heather and sat up. What he saw made bile rise in his throat. There was a huge gash along his left arm. Tentatively, he raised it and saw the indentations of a bite mark, the crust of dried blood encircling his arm. When he looked over at Heather, he noticed that she had a similar mark.

Horror welled up in him and he edged to the side of the bed, curling his lip as he felt his terror and confusion growing more and more. As he moved, the memories of last night flashed through his mind like a movie. The injury on his arm proved that it was real, not a bizarre, twisted dream...Somehow, he found himself traveling back to a memory of a dream he'd had where he and Heather had been werewolves...Had the dream been somehow prophetic?

He shivered inwardly, unable to rip his eyes away from his arm.

"Alejandro...?" Heather sat up, blinking away sleep.

Nervously, he turned to look at her and their eyes locked for a long moment. Suddenly, he felt a fresh flood of memories pour into his mind like an overwhelming waterfall:

The bright blazing light of the moon and an intense shock of pain, then being overtaken by animal instincts. He remembered a beautiful wolf, black as midnight with eyes the same color, running along side him as the city blurred and turned into a thick bunch of tree trunks. They'd raced through the woods, chasing each other, and playing as wolves did, expressing their love for each other under the light of the moon. Somewhere, they'd both taken down a huge deer, tackled it and killed it, and beyond that, he didn't really want to think about it.

The waterfall of memories had an unexpected effect on him. He rushed towards Heather and wrapped his arms around her, burying his face in her shoulder. When he pulled away and looked up at him, she was wearing the smile of an angel. "I love you..." she whispered.

He looked at her and could feel those same three words in his mouth, burning his tongue like fire. As she continued to look at him, as sunlight continued to shine in through the window, he could feel his lips trembling. But he couldn't say it. He just couldn't get himself to.

"Heather..." he said in a serious voice, gripping her shoulders. "We're _werewolves_."

The words seeped in and Heather drifted out of her daze, her gaze becoming steely and angry again. She shook him off and crawled away from him and he just stood there, looking confused. Glaring at him, Heather reached for a pillow and was bringing it up, ready to throw it at him.

"Get out!" she hissed.

"Heather...?" He looked at her, but she continued to glare.

"GET OUT!" she screamed.

Feeling a flare of anger and his cheeks heating up, Alejandro marched wordlessly to the bedroom door, yanked it open, and then slammed it shut behind him. Gritting his teeth, he stared at the wall and furrowed his brows. Nothing about last night made any sense at all.

Running his hands through his hair, he trudged into his own room, slamming the door behind him. While his mind tried to make sense out of everything that had just happened, he pulled off his shirt and threw it to the floor, trying to regain his composure despite his frayed nerves.

All he knew was that he'd be fine after he had a shower, a clean long sleeved shirt, and just completely ignored that last night ever happened.

Lindsay wandered down the hall, looking at the room numbers and hoping that she hadn't forgotten the number of Heather's door. She carried a shopping bag in her right hand full of mascara, lipstick-practically half her entire make-up stash specifically set aside for this season of Total Drama. Even though she didn't seem like outwardly, Lindsay could be smart and resourceful when she wanted to be. When she found the room she was looking for, Lindsay stopped aside and dropped the bag, smiling as she raised her hand to knock.

For a long second, she hesitated, bitterly remembering season 1 and how ruthless Heather had been. Then she remembered being rescued by Heather and felt her confidence raise again, felt determination wash over her like a wave; she'd waited long enough to do this. Now or never. She reached up, squeezing her fist and was just about to knock when she heard a loud sob.

Startled, Lindsay recoiled and stared at the door, blinking. There was another loud sob; the person on the other side of the door was obviously weeping.

Concerned, Lindsay knocked on the door. "Are you okay?"

She was answered by another, louder sob. Not sure what compelled her, Lindsay reached for the door knob and opened the door, entering without hesitation. She walked into the room and she felt her heart stop beating for a split second when she saw the last sight she'd ever expect to see-Heather sitting on a bed and crying, long lines of mascara running down her cheeks, her hair a huge bird's nest.

Heather looked absolutely shocked to see Lindsay there, the fresh tears running down her face glinting dully in the sunlight.

Knowing exactly what to do, Lindsay quickly went back outside, grabbed her shopping bag and then rushed into the room, pulling the door shut with a solid slam behind her. She rushed over to the bed and pulled a hair brush out of the bag, then began to brush Heather's hair.

"What-what are you doing here, Lindsay?" Heather asked, looking lost, confused, and faraway.

"I came here to thank you..." she replied, grunting as she worked around a tangle. "For saving me and Tyler's lives."

Heather reached up and rubbed her head. "Um..."

"You look like a mess, Heather!" Lindsay said. "Let me clean you up."

"Thank you, Lindsay..." Heather replied, actually giving her a sincere smile.

Expertly, Lindsay managed to smooth Heather's hair and clean the mascara off of her face. Then she commanded Heather to take a shower and once she was done, Lindsay dug a clean outfit out of Heather's suitcase for her, setting it out and then arranged a bunch of make-up.

Once Heather was dressed, she was beginning to resemble more of her normal self and she was looking at Lindsay skeptically. "Why are you doing this...?" Heather asked.

Lindsay looked up from the make-up and smiled at her, her smart and resourceful side shining through. "Because everybody deserves a second chance."


	8. 8: Alealejandrooo

8: Ale-alejandr-ooo

Gwen had eaten Chris' terrible, nasty glop, but Chris had completely forgotten all about it. Now she was rolling around on her bed, hearing the springs shriek and squawk as she rolled back and forth, clutching at her stomach. She'd set up a trash can next to her bed and several times she eyed it as her stomach flopped and spun like a pancake in a skillet.

That was when her bedroom door flung open and Duncan walked in. He sat down on the edge of her bed and nonchalantly...started rubbing her stomach?

Gwen looked up at him, confused, but he just smiled back at her. "My mom used to rub my stomach as a little kid when it was upset," he said simply.

"If I knew we were going to lose anyway..._Why _did I eat Chris' cooking?" Unable to hold it in anymore, Gwen sat up and grasped for the trash can. Just as she stuck her head into it, somebody appeared in the doorway. Duncan turned around and raised an eyebrow.

"Oh my God! Does she need an Ant Acid?" Kate the intern cried.

While Gwen retched into the trash can, Duncan shot the clueless intern a "Duh" look. Surprisingly, she fumbled around in the pocket of the brown leather jacket she was wearing and thrust Ant Acid at Duncan. Before Duncan could turn around to face Gwen, his eyes widened as Kate collapsed to her knees, grabbing at her forehead; she looked pale and was breathing hard. Apparently, Gwen wasn't the only one on the set of Total Drama K-O that was under the weather.

When Gwen came back up from the trash can, Duncan handed her the Ant Acid and she accepted it with a muttered "thanks." By now, Duncan expected that the intern would have taken her leave, but she was still there, climbing back to her feet and pulling the coat closer around her as she shivered more.

"C-chris told me to come and tell Gwen to go to the Tierra Inn kitchen," she stuttered. "I'll tell him that Gwen's sick, though. He told me she might not be able to so...you'll have to go in her place."

Looking extremely pissed off, Duncan shared an incredulous look with Gwen and mouthed a few silent cuss words. While Gwen folded herself under the blanket on the bed, Duncan stood up, muttering to himself. Before he followed Kate out, he went into the bathroom and poured Gwen a Styrofoam cup full of water and placed it on her end table. Silently, Gwen shot him an encouraging smile and Duncan smiled back at her.

Out in the hallway, Duncan almost felt like barfing when he saw Jose standing outside, arms folded and staring at Kate. Once she was close enough to him, Jose draped one of his arms around her shoulders and pulled her close. There were a few muttered protests from Kate, but she was feeling so under the weather she ended up trailing off. As they wandered down the hallway, Duncan shot a poisonous glare at the back of Jose's head. Just the fact that he was a relative of Alejandro, or as Duncan liked to call him _la cucaracha_, he was already suspicious of Jose. He had been from the very first second he'd seen him.

It felt like an eternity before they reached the kitchen, each second making Duncan wish he had some of Gwen's Ant Acid: Jose was whispering in Kate's ear, pulling all of the Don Juan moves that Al had pulled on the ladies third season. On top of that, he was beginning to suspect that the brown leather jacket Kate was wearing belonged to Jose. It was obvious that Jose was trying to string her along...

Before they entered the kitchen, Kate shuffled off, and when she looked over her shoulder at them, Duncan could swear that he saw a brief flash of crimson in her eyes...

Once he reached the kitchen, Duncan could already feel his "definitely-don't-want-to-do-this" sense tingling; it was a very common occurrence throughout his history of being on Total Drama. The only others besides him were _all_ of the girls. Bridgette leaned against the counter and was talking in whispers with LaShawna. Sierra had a sketchbook with her and was absorbed in doodling while Izzy hung onto a cabinet drawer, swinging wildly back and forth as she hooped and hollered. Heather, surprisingly, was standing next to Lindsay, the two of them standing close enough that their foreheads were touching and they were whispering to each other, too. Rio stood by herself, staring at her own reflection in her Compaq as she adjusted her make-up (Duncan partly wondered if she knew Jose was cheating on her, but then again, he had his suspicions about Rio, too).

As soon as they all noticed Duncan was standing there, they all looked up with wide eyes, blinking owlishly.

"If you're here...where are the rest of the guys?" LaShawna asked.

Duncan shrugged, and as if he was called on cue, Chris entered the kitchen with Blainely right behind him. Chris looked absolutely ecstatic, dressed in a black tux and a matching bowler hat and, surprisingly, Blainely looked just as ecstatic in a bright red unitard with a bright pink plume of feathers erupting behind her blond hair and near her rear like a plume of peacock feathers.

"The rest of the guys _won't_ be joining you..." Chris replied with a sinister smile. "This is a _ladies'_ challenge only."

Duncan felt his stomach drop like a rock. He shot a disapproving glare and pointed a finger at Chris before he barked: "Why am _I _here then?"

"There has to be at least one guy in this musical number..." Chris looked like a mischievous imp as he held up a bright green tux covered in lots and lots of sequins. All of the girls, including Blainely, snickered at the implication that Duncan was going to have to wear it.

"I am _not_ wearing that!" Duncan bellowed at Chris as his anger flared.

"If you don't participate, you're out of the game," Chris countered, his smirk growing. "And so is Gwen. The same goes for all of you...Any of you that don't participate...it's elimination for you, too."

Trying to quell his anger, Duncan clenched his fists and angrily snatched the monkey suit away from Chris. For a moment, he held up the outfit and as it sparkled back at him like a jewelry box full of emeralds, the fact that he was going to have to wear it truly dawned on him. The mental image was so embarrassing, he could feel his cheeks turning bright red.

Shooting another glare at Chris, he raised an eyebrow. "Am I the only one wearing a monkey suit?"

"Nope!" Chris gestured towards Blainely and she held up hangers with unitards similar to her own on them. Both of them had the same similar peacock plume, too, just in different colors. The girls gasped; only Sierra and Izzy looked excited about the outfits.

"You're expecting _me_...to wear _that_?" Heather balked.

Lindsay looked just as horror struck. "I can't wear purple!" she echoed.

Just the horrified look on Heather's face was priceless enough for Duncan. That made the upcoming challenge...a _mote_ more tolerable...

"You only have half an hour to prepare!" Chris said with a chuckle, sharing a secret smile with Blainely. "We're performing a musical number...with choreography!"

Everybody groaned and Duncan felt his jaw drop to his Converse sneakers.

Yeah...scratch that last comment...This was going to be absolutely _terrible_. Not even Ant Acid could erase the nausea and scarring memories _this_ was going to induce.

Heather looked down at the ridiculous ensemble she was wearing; it made her want to vomit.

It was a bright red unitard with feather plumes sticking out of the back, a matching headband, matching gloves, black pantyhose, and two-inch high heeled shoes. On top of that, she'd been designated one of the leads in the song _and _choreography...and it was all going to be on international TV. She'd already done enough embarrassing things on TV to last a lifetime, including getting her shirt ripped off, but none of them compared to _this_. _This _was the crowning achievement of all of her embarrassing exploits...

Lindsay bit her lip and looked at Heather, her eyebrows furrowed. Though Heather hated to admit it, Lindsay filled out her purple version of the costume ten times better than she did and she actually made the costume look _good_. Some part of Heather wanted to say something encouraging to Lindsay even though she really wasn't feeling very confident herself. Somehow, Heather found herself smiling at Lindsay, just at the small thought that she was regaining her friendship and...Lindsay smiled back, looking like a purple ball of sunshine.

Before she could say anything to Lindsay, Heather saw an intern off to the side signaling them to go on stage. He had the brim of his ball cap pulled down over his eyes and his cheeks were bright red. The other interns weren't as modest: they were smiling stupidly with glazed eyes. A few even wolf whistled and cat called, getting a nasty remark or otherwise from the other female contestants.

As Heather walked out on stage, she puffed up with rage when she saw Rio shamelessly strutting with her hands on her hips in her bright blue costume, blowing kisses to all of the "lovestruck" interns.

The lighting changed and the girls, all but Izzy and Sierra, looking reluctant and frustrated, took their positions. Her chest was blazing with a huge conflagration of rage when Heather noticed that Rio was in the potential limelight spot next to her. A circle of spotlight bloomed down onto both of them while the others were obscured in darkness. Then the musical score started up.

Confidently, Rio started strutting in a circle, waving her hands about. She shuffled over in Heather's direction, shooting her a contemptuous smile as she slapped her in the face with the feathers on the back plume of her costume. The music was slow with a violin slowly going up the scale. Smiling a sickly sweet smile, Rio leaned in towards Heather until their faces were barely millimeters apart:

" '_I know that we are young and I know that you may love me, but we just can't be like this anymore, Alejandro...' _"

Rio's voice fit the beginning of the song perfectly. As she backed away, she had a smug, satisfied smirk on her face. Her spotlight drifted to darkness as Heather was caught in the main one. Suddenly, she felt herself inclined to look out at the audience...

...As soon as she did, she felt a huge lump in the pit of her stomach. Sitting in the bleachers across from the set was _Alejandro _himself. She couldn't see his face from so far away, but she could feel the blush crawling up onto her face and exploding like a firecracker. She couldn't stop the embarrassment now, but she could feel her despair roiling around inside her like a caged bird with one of its wings cut off. Her utter embarrassment was cut off as the instrumental took off.

Somehow, she managed to belt out the beginning of the song with as much emotion and passion as Lady Gaga herself. Heather kept her attention deliberately turned away from the bleachers as she continued to sing, getting lost in the dance and the echo of the others surrounding her. At one point of the song, the lights became a disco strobe. LaShawna and Bridgette came up behind Heather and it was just the three of them, singing and dancing in unison:

" _'Don't call my name, don't call my name, Alejandro...' _"

Everything was beginning to feel like a surreal dream. For some reason, the fact that this part of the song was being performed specifically by her, Bridgette, and LaShawna seemed peculiarly symbolic. After that, the rest of the song and dance number felt like a painfully never ending dream with an Alice in Wonderland theme going on: Rio was the Cheshire Cat that kept swooping in out of nowhere and smiling wickedly at her and Chris was the Mad Hatter, watching the scene with twisted glee and delight. All the while, Heather felt like her heart was on fire with a flurry of indescribable emotions. She didn't want to know what Alejandro thought of this _at all_.

Near the end of the song, Duncan joined her in the spotlight and he looked constipated as he danced next to her. Finally, mercifully, the song ended and the lights dimmed and shut off. Heather could hear the spitfire shots of bad words she was reeling off in her head jumping out in a cluttered, whispered jumble from Duncan's mouth. Before anything else could happen, Heather made a mad dash backstage towards her dressing room.

By the time she got there, she couldn't remember how she had. In hysterical fury and confusion, she ripped off the high heels and tossed them at the wall, feeling a small prickle of satisfaction when she heard the heel on one of them audibly crack. Then she pulled off the rest of the insanely stupid costume and pulled on her regular clothes. Taking deep breaths, she lowered herself in front of the room's mirror and stared at her reflection. Her dark pupils stared back at her for several seconds as she blinked...then she released a long, high banshee scream.

She grabbed huge hanks of her hair and knotted her fingers through it, squeezing her eyelids shut and wishing that this had all been just one big, insane dream...

"Heather...?" She felt a hand lightly touch her shoulder.

Reluctantly, Heather pulled her hands out of her hair and opened her eyes. Slowly, she turned around to see who was addressing her and was surprised to see LaShawna standing there, still wearing her own bright yellow version of the costume.

"LaShawna...?" Heather forced herself to quickly regain her composure.

"I heard you screaming," LaShawna said, a frown line forming on her forehead. "I might not like you much, but what Chris just did...That was just plain low and inexcusable..."

"I think Blainely helped him come up with it," Heather said bitterly, feeling tears poking at the back of her eyes. "He couldn't have come up with something _that _disgustingly evil by himself. They're a despicable pair. Who knew they could be so nightmarish together...not to mention tacky. Blainely's sense of fashion is just as terrible as Chris'!"

LaShawna smiled.

Despite herself, Heather looked up at LaShawna and smiled back. "I mean...did you _see _Blainely's white pantyhose?"

"How could I not?" LaShawna rolled her eyes. "She looked like Richard Simmons!"

Both of them laughed at that. Heather found herself laughing so hard tears sprang to her eyes. Once LaShawna calmed down, her expression turned serious again.

"You still like Alejandro, don't you?"

"What...?"

"It was obvious in World Tour that you had a crush on him and it's obvious now," LaShawna said simply.

Heather pursed her lip and folded her arms defiantly. "I _do not _like him."

"Yeah you do," LaShawna replied. "You're blushing..."

Exhaling sharply, Heather turned away from LaShawna and looked down at the discarded pile of the red costume. The previous events swam in her head like big, colorful fish, making her heart beat rapidly again.

"I _do not_," Heather insisted sharply, glaring at LaShawna. "I _hate_ him. I'm only cooperating with him to win the money..."

"_I_ hate Alejandro's guts. Do you know how much self-restraint it takes me to keep from knocking him out?" LaShawna's eyes were burning with her hatred. "I give you major props for giving him what he deserves, Heather, but I can tell you're still in love with him. And that he's in love with you, too. It's so obvious, _everyone _can see it."

Her words hit like heavy hail. Not sure what to say, Heather was silent for once, feeling herself wanting to snap or to argue, but for some reason...she couldn't.

"As a fellow contestant, I'm just warning you," LaShawna said, her face like steel. "Don't fall in love with Alejandro again, because this time, _he'll_ be the one that breaks _your_ heart."

The dressing room was silent for a long minute as Heather soaked in what LaShawna had just said. In the end, she just rolled her eyes and turned away from LaShawna. Angrily, she insulted LaShawna's fashion sense and the comment caught LaShawna off-guard.

LaShawna shook her head. "I knew it was a stupid idea to come in here..."

The room felt suddenly empty once LaShawna exited the room.

Alejandro didn't know what to think as he found himself wandering aimlessly through the halls of the Tierra Inn; he'd already passed the door to his own room several times. Every time he passed Heather's door, he felt a slight shiver, either from longing or disgust he wasn't sure. The image of her dancing around in that ridiculous costume singing a godawful Lady Gaga song kept scrolling through his head like a video set on endless replay.

He'd always hated the Lady Gaga song _Alejandro _as soon as he'd discovered it. Bitterly, he clenched his fists as he remembered how readily Jose had taken advantage of his dislike towards that song, taking every available opportunity to use it to annoy him.

Just that alone sent the gears in his head clicking. Making him watch Heather dance and sing to that song...Jose was probably the one who'd planted the idea in the first place. Him fraternizing with Blainely's favorite pet intern was enough to ensure that. Chris and Blainely might have come up with the idea by themselves, but without the inside insight Jose had, it was highly unlikely that they would have come up with and executed the idea at the most opportune moment. They were usually too busy bickering over who was going to host the show to really have any "bright" or "additive" ideas like that one anyway...

Suddenly, Alejandro felt a huge urge to want to gain some kind of vengeance on Jose. He could feel a ferocious, snarling instinct at the back of his head wanting to dig his claws and teeth into Jose and rip him apart...

The desire was so unexpected, Alejandro stopped pacing the hallway for a moment and pushed back the sleeve of his shirt. The gash was still there, but it was starting to heal into a long thin purplish bruise...

"Hello..._Alejandro_," a voice purred.

Quickly, he pulled his shirt sleeve back down over his arm and snapped to attention. Rio had appeared out of nowhere and was standing in front of him, arms folded and a seductive smile on her face. He'd seen how some of the other guys were inexplicably charmed by Rio, turning to look at her, even briefly, when they thought their girlfriends weren't looking. Personally, Alejandro wasn't really taken in by her. She was pretty, yes, but not any prettier than any other girl he'd seen.

Nonchalantly, she walked right up to him until they were barely inches apart. Obviously, she had no respect for personal space.

"You're pretty handsome," she said, tilting her head a little. "No wonder Heather's so taken with you."

"Aren't you Jose's girlfriend?" he asked her, raising an eyebrow. "I've heard the rumor that you flirted with Geoff in an attempt to break him and Bridgette up. Amateur trick. If you're trying to flirt me into being interested, you are out of luck."

Rio rolled her eyes. He was surprised when she reached up and grabbed his chin, leaning in until the tips of their noses were touching. Her brown eyes were filled with liquid lightning forks as she glared at him. "That's not my intention whatsoever," she replied in a voice full of sharp nails. "I have something else in mind. As a matter of fact, you could say that I'm doing you a favor..."

Rio smiled as she released him and took a step back. Alejandro felt his eyebrow jump as she dug a plastic gold apple out of the pocket of her jean jacket and held it up towards him. He could see his own confused face reflected in its surface.

"I think it's about time Jose got the full terms of my _alliance_ with him," Rio said, stroking the apple. "What I'm proposing is that the two of us team up-temporarily, mind you. My plan entails this: _You _flirt with that intern he's got his eye on and then get into a fight with him. Stir up the dredges of your brotherly rivalry. He'll be so intent on trying to defeat you that he'll lose the next challenge..."

What Rio was saying made no sense. "That means you'll lose, too."

"Oh, 'tis all for a bigger picture," Rio said with a secretive smile. "Your beauteous Heather's not the only girl on this game show with a devious mind. I need you to keep Jose occupied while I personally deal with Kate..."

The more she said, the stranger her plan seemed. The truest part of Rio's personality truly shined in what she was saying and how lovingly she stroked her trinket. And here Alejandro had been under the inclination that Courtney was the craziest chick on the show just behind Izzy herself, who was the definition of the word _insane_.

"What do you want with that intern, exactly?"

In reply, Rio blushed and pocketed the apple again. "None of your business!" she barked.

"What do I get in return for helping you with this?" he asked, trying not to smirk. It was obvious that Rio was doing a poor job of hiding her crush on Jose; Alejandro filed that information away for possible future use. She really wasn't very good at the manipulation game if she was making one of her biggest weaknesses _that _obvious.

"A guarantee that if Jose and I make it to the finals with you, I'll make sure we _lose_," Rio said, her eyes flashing.

That was quite a line of bait to stick in his face: too good to be true. Alejandro shook his head and laughed. He didn't even finish talking to Rio, he just turned on his heel and walked away. Nothing she was saying or offering made sense; she really was a nutcase-

Alejandro felt something pelt the back of his head.

When he turned, Rio stood there and he felt his breath leak out when he saw that her eyes had turned bright red, no pupils whatsoever. She stalked up to him and he found himself frozen to the spot, unable to move his arms or his legs. Smiling sinisterly, Rio stroked his cheek and then leaned in, closing her eyes, and kissed him.

Since he was unable to move, Alejandro couldn't pull away. It was just at that moment that Heather was opening the door of her room and she saw them. Alejandro could feel his heart sink to his shoes as she looked at him with widened, unbelieving eyes. As Rio pulled away, she whispered in his ear: "You have no chance against _me_..."

She snickered as she backed away and left him standing there, confused and bewildered. Just as he regained his ability to move, Heather shot a glare at him before pulling her door shut again with a huge slam. Alejandro was overcome with a huge surge of anger. He whirled around and ran to catch up with Rio. As she turned a corner, he chased her with determined rage, calling her name followed by a series of loud curses in Spanish. Once he reached the corner she'd turned onto...

...she was gone. The hallway was absolutely _empty_.

Kate tossed and turned on the mattress, sweat pouring down her neck, her heart pounding and racing. Desperately, she pulled Jose's leather jacket closer around her shoulders and wondered why she felt so cold. Sleep wasn't coming and she felt so miserable and uncomfortable; she had to do _something..._

Restless, Kate crawled off of the mattress and onto her feet. She shared a tiny hotel room with two of the other interns and both of them were sound asleep; one was even snoring. There was a bright and blazing full moon outside, the second night in a row for one. Kate found herself soaking in the darkness of the night, absolutely reveling in it. As the light of the moon washed over her, she felt all of her discomfort disappear. It felt like a bunch of electrons were zipping up and down her spine, her arms, her neck...

The most shocking thing was when she felt her heart in her chest stop beating. And she was suddenly overcome with intense hunger. She found herself eying the other interns with a predatory eye, but she ended up leaving the room and creeping down the hallway. Thoughts of vengeance and other evil thoughts were dancing like a cloud of buzzing mosquitoes. And they wouldn't stop; the thoughts just became stronger and stronger with each step she took.

Kate turned into a bat and felt a huge sense of elation at the thought of chasing her prey. She turned back into her regular form as soon as she stood outside a particular door and then just simply knocked. A few seconds later, a disheveled and grumpy Chris showed up at the door, rubbing his eyes. He glared at Kate as soon as he saw her before launching into an angry tirade.

His anger had no effect on Kate anymore. She just wore a huge smile, making it grow until her two sharp canines were showing.

"Very funny," Chris said at the sight of her canines. "I'm not amused. Do you _want_ to get fired?"

In reply, Kate grabbed his arm and shoved back the sleeve of his purple velvet bath robe. Ferociously, she dived in and bit his arm, sinking her teeth into it. Chris howled and tried to bat her away, but Kate hung on like a determined leech. It was several minutes before she pulled away of her own volition, watching as Chris stared in disbelief at the wound in his arm, at the streaks of crimson blood pooling around the puncture holes where Kate had bitten him.

As he freaked out about that, the door to the room next to him flew open and Blainely ran out in her silk pink PJs. As soon as she saw Blainely, Kate rushed at her new victim with inhuman speed. Kate bit Blainely's arm and Blainely shrieked, the pale blue pupils of her eyes shrinking the longer Kate stayed attached. About a minute later, Kate finally pulled away from Blainely's arm, wearing a satisfied smirk as Blainely crumpled to the floor in a faint. As she turned around, she saw Chris fall over and faint as well.

Part of Kate's hunger was sated, but it wasn't enough. Following more of a sense of new instinct rather than revenge now, Kate stalked down the hallway and turned into a bat, flying as silently as she could and searching for more possible prey...


	9. 9: Great Big Crocodile Tears

9: Great Big Crocodile Tears

Dr. Renard blinked owlishly as his eyes adjusted to the dark. He looked at the bell hop he had knocked out: an unlucky twenty-some year old whose hands and wrists were now bound with rope and a piece of duct tape was slapped over his mouth. Troy looked at Renard, nodded curtly, and then tapped the watch on his wrist. After several seconds Troy's skeletal form transformed into a semblance of his original human form.

Renard had given him the hologram watch when he discovered that the robot body he was making for Troy was going to be much later than he'd been hoping and the watch would at least appease Troy long enough to keep his whining at bay for at least a little while.

For a few seconds, Renard stalled in the open door to the maintenance closet, lit only faintly by a beam of moonlight. Troy just stood there, blinking, and waiting patiently. Eventually, Renard pulled the door shut with a click and then finished fixing the buttons on the front of his stolen red and gold bell hop's uniform; he also briefly glanced at the ancient brass bird cage he held in his hand. He scurried down the hall and shot cursory glances everywhere, making sure that doors were shut and that he wasn't being watched very closely as he rolled up the long sleeve of his jacket and activated his invisibility device.

As soon as he heard bat noises, Renard turned off his invisibility and held up the bird cage, opening the tiny door. The clueless bat flew inside and Renard flipped the tiny door closed again; helplessly, the bat flapped around crazily, somersaulting a few times as it became utterly disoriented and upset. Gently, Renard stroked the side of the cage and murmured soothingly, eventually calming the bat down and directing its gaze at him. Two crimson eyes stared up at him and he smiled.

"Well done," he told Kate the vampire, digging a packet out of his pocket and slipping it through the cage bars. "It's goat blood. Maybe not as tasty to you as human blood, but I can't have you attacking anyone else right this-"

Before he could even finish talking, the bat rushed at the packet, digging her fangs into it and draining it in seconds with loud slurping noises. Renard couldn't help a small smile as he watched the bat settle against the wall of the cage and look up at him hopefully with wide, expecting eyes. Suppressing a chuckle, Renard started off down the hallway back towards the supply closet...

Owen looked down at his foot tall pile of fluffy golden waffles and just stared at them. He felt extremely weird and couldn't help fingering the bite mark on the palm of his hand. Last night, a crazy bat had swooped into his bedroom and just randomly bit his hand. After that, he'd felt a bit woozy and fainted...

First the incident with the raccoon and now _this_...

He was beginning to have as much bad luck with animals as DJ had been during third season. But a bite from a bat shouldn't be causing him to lose his appetite. He _always _had an appetite and he had the strongest stomach out of everyone he knew.

"Hey Owen!" Geoff said, giving him a friendly slap on the shoulder; Owen just shrugged his shoulders and gave a long, low sigh in response. "Is something wrong, buddy?"

As soon as he saw Owen's uneaten waffles, his eyes grew wide. "This is your third or fourth plate...right?"

"It's my first," Owen replied sadly, frowning at him.

"Holy crap." Geoff frowned. "I've never seen you this depressed before."

"I only ate two or three helpings of fondue cheese at my mom's welcome home party last time Izzy broke up with me..." Owen confessed, poking at his food with the prongs of his fork. "Mom was worried. I wasn't able to eat normally for _three whole weeks_. I even..._lost_ some weight..."

By this point, Geoff's jaw was hanging down so far it could be touching the floor. The reaction didn't make Owen feel any better and he frowned, twirling the fork and looking at one of the walls with longing. Food danced in his mind's eye, but he couldn't-he just _couldn't_- get himself to eat. When he looked up, Geoff held up a fork with a waffle dangling on it and was clasping a bottle of maple syrup like a weapon. He looked the most serious he ever had in his life and he was a laid back, party kind of dude.

That was enough to lodge a huge lump in Owen's throat.

"Come on, this isn't right!" Geoff cried, dangling the food in Owen's face. "It isn't _natural_! Eat, Owen. Eat for your family, your friends, your fans! Your _country_. You can't let the folks back home see you like this..."

Geoff's words ignited a huge surge of patriotic pride in Owen's chest. With a huge grin, he swiped the waffle and finished it off in a large, triumphant bite that only he was capable of. Then he speared the rest of the waffles with his fork and ignored the way his intestines twisted with nervous anxiety in his stomach and his peculiar lack of appetite and ate them all. Geoff was clapping enthusiastically as Owen executed a salute.

"For _Canada_!" he trumpeted.

"That's so beautiful!" Geoff sniffed, a tear in the corner of one of his eyes. "That's true patriotism, bra..."

Geoff was just about to encourage Owen to go up and get more waffles when two loud angry voices drifted into the cafeteria. Both Geoff and Owen instantly turned their attention towards the caf entrance and Alejandro entered, looking like he was about to erupt like a volcano, with Jose following at his heels and yelling loud and fast in Spanish.

Owen blinked and frowned. The only times he'd seen Al that furious were when he was called "Al" and in the finale of World Tour when he'd been competing with Heather.

It was a classic case of sibling rivalry...making Owen glad that he was an only child on one of those few rare occasions in his life. Otherwise, he'd always wanted a younger brother to have eating contests with that looked up to him and who he could tell all about his experiences on Total Drama. Part of Owen wondered if Al had touching moments like that with Jose...?

Jose was pretty much just an older, more tolerable version of Al...only much better looking, with a better sense of fashion, and a six pack rivaled only by Justin's...Not that Owen would know.

The arguing brothers reached a table and once Jose sat down, Al raised his arms in frustration and stormed off towards the front counter. Jose muttered angrily in Spanish as he folded his arms and rested his head on the table.

"I wonder what's up with them..." Geoff mused, verbally stating what they were both pondering.

"What's up with _him_?" Cody asked, joining Geoff and Owen at their table.

It was a miracle since it was one of those rare times he didn't have Sierra clutching his arm or drooling all over his face.

"We don't know," Owen said. "It just sounded like a bunch of gibberish..."

"I'm gonna go see if he's okay," Cody said, then narrowed his eyes at Owen. "Normally I'd let you take that"-he gestured at his waffle-"but I really want something good to eat today before Sierra forces me to eat anymore food..." He cringed. "...shaped like _me_."

"Is she a good cook?" Owen asked.

"She's great!" Cody gasped, his eyes shining. "She makes cookies better than my grandma's..."

"Then what's the problem?" Geoff echoed with a shrug. "She's really into you and she seems like a good gal. I think you're being too harsh on her-"

"I'm gonna go see what's up with him now," Cody said dismissively, closing any further opportunity for more conversation and crooking his thumb in Jose's direction.

Cody sighed as he turned his back to Owen and Geoff, casting one last worried glance at his food. He straightened his back as he wandered over towards where Jose was sitting. The guy was fairly new to Total Drama and Cody felt sorry for him having somebody like _Al _as a younger brother. Al might say that Jose was the bane of his existence, but Cody couldn't imagine that anybody was worse than Alejandro...

"Hey!" he said, summoning the full extent of his cool and charismatic prowess. "What's up?"

Jose sat up and raised one of his eyebrows skeptically. "_Hola_. _Estoy bien-_Oh, sorry, I was still thinking in Spanish!" Jose said with a nervous laugh.

The guy's laugh was infectious and Cody found himself laughing along with him.

"Oh...I was just having an argument with Alejandro," Jose said with a casual shrug. "Typical sibling stuff. You know?"

"I'm an only child, but I can't imagine how terrible it is to have _him _as a brother..." Cody cringed. "No offense."

"None taken," Jose replied with a frown. "I hate Alejandro. He's the worst little brother on the face of the planet and I'm sorry for what you and the others had to go through when he was on the show. He's always been absolutely despicable if you know what I mean. Started with stealing cookies then worked up to being Mom's favorite and blaming _me_..." He looked away. "I'm sorry. I shouldn't burden you with all of this..."

Cody raised an eyebrow. "You're not. I _hate _Alejandro, too. I really d-"

Suddenly, Cody was interrupted by the sound of someone audibly clearing their throat. When he turned around, he found his heart hammering in his chest: Al loomed over him like a dark mountain, his arms folded and a ferocious glower on his face...Were those _golden flecks_ in his eyes?

Like pretty much everybody else on the show, Cody hated Alejandro, but that didn't mean he wasn't scared by him. Al let out a low guttural growl and Cody felt an immense wave of fear crash down on him like a huge ocean wave of icicles. Shivering involuntarily, Cody ducked out from Alejandro and started to back away, but Al blocked any further progress by him by holding out one of his arms.

"Making alliances, are we?" he asked Jose, gritting his teeth. "You were just calling me a 'despicable bastard' and now, here you are, going ahead and forging alliances with the other contestants' absolute hatred of me...?"

The anger in Al's voice made Cody's heartbeat rocket up farther and he actually _wished_ that Sierra were here right now...

Jose flicked a look at Cody and then rolled his eyes. "I'm not letting you _walk all over me_!" he yelled, choosing his words carefully. "I know you found a way to get rid of Kate...I just know it."

_Kate...? _Cody frowned. _They're arguing over...the intern?_

"For the millionth time, I'm being honest when I say _I did nothing_!" Alejandro yelled.

"You kissed Rio," Jose declared, narrowing his eyes.

He said it loud enough that everybody else in the caf was staring at them. A group of the female contestants happened to be entering at that particular moment. Before Jose or Alejandro could make any more cutting remarks to each other, the girls were watching, wide-eyed as Heather rushed at Rio and slapped her across the face. While everyone was staring at the fight about to break out, Cody used it as a chance to escape being caught between Jose and his brother.

He ran over towards Geoff and Owen and hid behind Owen's massive girth in a futile attempt to keep Sierra from finding him for a few more scant, precious seconds. Curiosity getting the better of him, Cody peered around Owen at the growing tension between Heather and Rio.

"Leave her alone, Heather!" LaShawna said, standing next to Rio.

"Thanks..." Rio turned towards LaShawna and gave her a grateful smile, playing the innocent victim.

LaShawna was joined by Sierra, Gwen, Izzy, and Lindsay. Lindsay shook her head at Heather, her face a mask of disappointment. Surprisingly, Bridgette stood next to Heather, her arms folded, glaring at Rio. All of the girls looked at her, flabbergasted.

"Bridgette...?" LaShawna raised an eyebrow.

"You're on _my_ side...?" Heather was just as surprised.

"Rio tried to take my boyfriend, too," Bridgette confided, frowning as her eyes became glints of steel.

Now the girls looked between Rio and Bridgette. It was easy to declare Heather the bad guy, but since it was _Bridgette, _possibly the nicest and friendliest girl on Total Drama, that was aligning herself with Heather against Rio...it was hard to discern who was right and who was wrong.

"I would've slapped her, too," Bridgette continued, her glare intensifying.

Rio was expressionless as she reached up to gingerly touch the bright red hand print on her cheek. The tension in the room just kept mounting. Another few seconds passed and then LaShawna turned and shot a questioning look at Jose and Alejandro from across the room. "Get your butts over here!" she commanded, gesturing.

The two brothers glared at each other before walking over towards the group. Jose folded his arms and looked at Rio, his eyebrows raised.

"Okay," LaShawna said, playing the role of mediator. "You go first, Jose."

"Alejandro kissed my girlfriend," he said bluntly.

Some of the girls started muttering to each other and nodding, affirming his story with gossip and other past events. Heather's eyes widened and she looked at Alejandro; when he looked at her, his own eyes widened and he furrowed his brows, his eyes pleading. The look was extremely unexpected from him since he tried not to show his emotion on his face in the presence of others. Heather looked away from him, squeezing her eyes shut.

"I willingly kissed Alejandro," Rio admitted, her eyes welling up with tears; she shot a pleading look at Bridgette. "But you all know how deceptively charming he is! _Por favor_, I feel guilty, extremely guilty, and..." She sniffed. "...I am so sorry, Jose..._mi amor de mi vida_."

Jose's eyes widened and he gasped. A lot of the girls were swayed by Rio's words, even LaShawna had her hand over her heart. Biting her lip, Bridgette shot a look at Heather, her eyebrows knitting as she revealed the full extent of her indecision.

"That's not how it went..." Alejandro said, looking directly at Heather. "I didn't kiss Rio-"

Heather shook her head and closed her eyes, turning and walking out of the room. Alejandro watched her go, trembling, and with a face contorted in sadness and anger.

"This has been a long time coming!"

LaShawna reached out and slapped Al so hard across the face he was seeing stars. He stumbled out of the room, barely able to stand on his feet. All of the girls in the room, minus Rio, were glaring heatedly at him. One after the other gave him a huge slap across the face; Sierra gave him two or three especially vicious thwacks, howling with animalistic rage. They all turned, muttering and angry, and went off to sit at different tables.

Cody watched as Al retreated, feeling his own cheeks burn as if he'd been the one that was slapped. Fury hath no rage like that of an angry woman. That was the exact moment he found himself swept up under Sierra's arm like an article of carry-on luggage. Next to her, she had her arm draped around Rio's shoulders and was trying to comfort her as she frowned and looked sad.

When Sierra wasn't looking, Rio shot a look at him and winked.

That was enough to start piquing Cody's suspicion.

Chris smirked as the front doors of the Tierra Inn shot open.

A redhead bell hop looked overwhelmed as he had to drag a luggage rack stacked with at least eighteen different suitcases. There were actually beads of sweat on his forehead as he scowled and struggled. This just increased Chris' insanely good mood even more. He absentmindedly scratched at his arm, trying, with a moderate level of difficulty, to forget the dream he'd had last night about being attacked by an intern turned vampire. Strange thing was he had a very irritating mosquito bite on his arm _and _that same intern had gone mysteriously missing since just last night...

Standing in the lobby of the Tierra Inn was Courtney, her now long brunette hair sprawling around her shoulders. She wore a pair of expensive blue sunglasses with in-set rhinestones and a golden dress, her hands perched on her hips.

"Nice to see you, Courtney," Chris said, coming forward to shake her hand. "The lawyers aren't here, are they?"

Courtney laughed merrily and lowered her sunglasses. "Oh...I became rich off of my autobiography!" Courtney gushed. "Those days are behind us...No need to dig up the past. Truly, Chris. You think I would stoop so low...?"

"Yes," Chris muttered.

"What?"

"Nothing." She might have been feigning maturity, but Chris knew better. Pissing off Courtney meant dealing with her lawyers and her lawyers were a force to be reckoned with.

"I thought so!" She shot him a megawatt movie-star smile, revealing that she was using teeth whitener. Chris had to give her _some _props on that, considering that he used it, too. And, boy, did it make teeth shine so much it made women swoon and dentists drool.

"I'm getting paid for doing this, right?" Courtney said, sliding her sunglasses back into place.

"Of course," Chris replied, smiling.

Suddenly, the door behind Courtney flew open again and another figure sailed into the lobby of the Tierra Inn. Justin, with a smile even wider and brighter than Courtney's, appeared by her side and as soon as he'd arrived, he was clasping Courtney around the waist and making out with her. The display made one of Chris' eyes twitch and behind him, the bell hop was making disgusted, gagging noises.

Things just got worse a second later when Justin pulled away and started rubbing noses with Courtney, sputtering a slew of baby names and cooing at her.

Clenching his fists, the bell hop whispered under his breath, so low that nobody else could hear him: _"Aphrodite!"_

The contestants that had lost the last challenge filed into the warehouse, looking disgruntled, anxious, and otherwise. Owen kept staring fixedly at his arm and next to him, Izzy was crooning at the piranha still clinging to her arm. But now she had one more animal friend than Bitey: a rather angry squirrel was perched on her shoulder and glaring at Duncan, shooting him "I've got my eyes on you" gestures.

Chris stood in front of them, arms folded behind his back. He gestured at one of the nearby camera men and the pitch black warehouse was suddenly flooded with light. All of the contestants gasped and looked utterly horrified. The interns running the cameras started rolling and zoomed in directly on their facial expressions.

:Episode 3:

"This is your challenge!" Chris gestured at the obstacle course.

There was a series of six lines of five foot tall hurdles. Beyond that, Sasquatchanawkwa was patrolling back and forth with a wicked looking scythe, the sickle end glinting dangerously in the flourescent light. Beyond the Sasquatch were hot tubs sizzling and crackling with loose sparks of electricity. Behind the hot tubs, finally, were six metal tubs filled with chocolate pudding. Over each one was a suspended person, tied securely with rope. Justin was suspended over one, Courtney the next, then Trent, Blainely, and after them Alejandro and...Kate the intern, who had been found.

Justin and Courtney were flirting, looking bizarrely ill at ease, but the rest looked extremely pissed off and frazzled. Out of all of them, Kate was thrashing and struggling the most, her eyes full of hatred. A few times she spouted cuss words.

As soon as Gwen saw Trent, she felt her heart drop to the bottom of her chest. He looked over at her and was wearing a sheepish smile, which dredged up at least half a million painful memories. Her cheeks burned as she turned her face away; she shuffled her feet in an attempt to keep her reeling mind preoccupied. Flustered, she shot a venomous glare at the camera that was trying to hone in on her reaction to seeing Trent. Out of the corner of her eye she could see Duncan looking...jealous?

He was watching Courtney and Justin with such an attentive eye that Gwen could feel herself wondering if Duncan still...had feelings for Courtney?

"You have to save your damsel in distress before they fall into the chocolate pudding," Chris said, smirking. "And you have to do it under five minutes. If your damsel isn't rescued in time, or you finish last, you _and _your partner are _eliminated_!"

"No voting...?" Duncan raised an eyebrow.

"No voting," Chris affirmed. "This way's more fun. Now...Gwen your 'damsel' to save is Trent, Duncan's is Courtney, Owen's is Justin, Izzy's is Blainely, Lindsay's is Alejandro, and Tyler's is Kate."

Duncan and Gwen frowned. Of course, only Chris would make a challenge like this and know exactly what strings to pull to make it as dramatic as possible...


End file.
